


Hidden in the Shadows

by Blackcat509



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 20:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 33,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15804216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackcat509/pseuds/Blackcat509
Summary: Members of the expedition are disappearing without a trace. Can it be stopped before it's too late. Yeah, Really bad at these. Please enjoy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I put this on Fanfiction a few months ago but at the suggestion of a friend I've decided to uplaod it on here too.

The world was still when he woke up and it took a moment to work out what had disturbed him. Finally, his ears picked up on the whispering that was coming from outside his door. Climbing out of bed, Dr. Bonadan put his glasses on and went to the door, sweeping his hand over the sensor. Stepping outside he looked up and down the corridor, trying to see what was causing the noise. The whispering had gotten louder in his ears, but the hallway was empty. Logically it made no sense. Taking a few steps in each direction the Doctor headed towards the noise, following the corridor round until he could see the ocean through the tall windows. When he saw a shadow standing against the wall, he was all set to tell them to be quiet, the harsh whispering almost deafening, but as he began to approach the hairs on his arms stood on end and a chill ran down his spine. Something was very wrong. He stopped when the shadow seemed to spot him, turning to face him, beginning to take slow deliberate steps in his direction. When it got close enough for the Doctor to see it clearly, he did the only thing he could think of, turn and run. He just hoped he was quick enough to escape it.

* * *

  
He was late, he knew it, not that knowing he was late helped any; what he did know however, was that Elizabeth would be annoyed. So, when he barrelled through the door John expected to hear her question on why he was late, raised eyebrow included. What he actually got was Rodney making the expected snappish comment and Elizabeth asking, "have you seen Dr. Bonadan?" a hopefulness in her voice.

"I know, I'm late." He'd already replied when his brain processed what she'd said, "wait, you're not annoyed?"

"No," she sighed, "we're still waiting on Dr. Bonadan. Like you, he's almost twenty minutes late." Rodney made a snorting laugh at that, stopping when he saw Sheppard glare.

"Have you tried contacting him on the coms?"

"I wanted to give it a few more minutes before announcing to the entire city that he was late." Nodding in understanding, John took his seat at her right and looked around the room. It was the type of meeting he hated, but as military leader had to attend. All around him sat scientists, mostly from the biology department, all with eager faces, excited eyes and stained lab coats.  
Rodney cleared his throat finally attracting John's attention. "Late again Sheppard. What was it this time? Faulty alarm clock?" His tone was mocking, and John wasn't in the mood. Why these damn meetings had to be scheduled for oh eight hundred he'd never know.

"Didn't sleep," he grunted. Part of him wondered what would happen if he told him the truth, but then again, giving Rodney a heart attack in the briefing room would probably upset Elizabeth.

"What reason do you have not to sleep. It's not like you have any pressing matters to trouble your mind. I on the other hand, have several experiments I need to keep an eye on." The superior tone wasn't lost on John. Shaking his head at Rodney he turned back to Elizabeth, making eye contact and after a moment giving her a brief nod. Looking over to two of the scientists he sent one to Dr. Bonadans' lab and the other to his quarters while Elizabeth tried to reach him on the coms, her voice echoing throughout the city. After a couple of attempts and getting nothing, she shook her head and dismissed the assembled scientists, thanking them for coming and apologising for wasting their time. John watched as they filed out shaking their heads and muttering at Bonadan's laziness before following Elizabeth to her office, dropping into the chair opposite her desk. He could see the frustration on her face, coupled with a touch of concern. Doctor Bonadan was one of the first scientists she'd recruited onto the expedition, back when they were still based in Antarctica and since they'd arrived in the city he'd headed up the biology department.

"He probably just overslept." It's not much in the way of comfort but without proper information it's all he's got.

"I know. It's just not like him. He was so excited about the new lab we've discovered and the biological compounds he'd found. He even claimed that they may be able to be used as an organic power source. It was him who asked for this meeting." For a few minutes they sat in silence, enjoying each other's company and watching the activities of operations, only moving when they saw the two scientists come back into the gate room gesticulating emphatically. Meeting them on the catwalk to her office, Elizabeth looked at them expectantly.

"Neither of us understand it Dr. Weir. He's not in his room or in any of the labs. In fact, he hasn't been seen since last night."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I saw him head off to his quarters last night," Dr. Resh replied, her eyes bright with worry, "he said he'd be here for the briefing today."

"Okay. Thank you." Elizabeth and John watched as the two scientists left before heading back to her office. "John, how long would it take for a team to do a city-wide search?"

"Depends on the number of teams, couple of hours for the control tower with three teams." He waited for her nod before he left his office, tapping his radio as he went to assemble the personnel he'd need.  
Tapping her own earpiece Elizabeth waited for Rodney's voice to crackle into her ear, "is there any way that the biosensors can tell us exactly how many people are in the city?"

"Oh yes, of course, I'll just flip the switch and make that happen." His reply was pretty much what she expected, so she waited through his little rant knowing he'd come up with an actual solution. "It would take a few hours to write the programme, longer if it was Zalenka you'd asked, but not everyone is as good as me at-"

"Rodney," she cut him off, "please."

"Right, on it." The connection died and with nothing to but wait, Elizabeth decided to start on the mountain of reports on her desk.

The search of the control tower took longer than John would have hoped, mostly due to scientists constantly stopping him and his teams to ask if they'd found Bonadan yet. By the time the teams had assembled back in the control room and reported they'd found nothing it was late, and John was frustrated and hungry. How hard could it be to find one wayward scientist after all. Looking up to the glass walls of Elizabeth's office he shook his head when he caught her eyes and saw her frown deepen. He had to admit it was strange, even if he'd fallen down a flight of stairs or god forbid it died, they should have found him or his body at least, instead it was like he'd disappeared into thin air. Turning back to the soldiers gathered in front of him he ordered them to search again, this time expanding the search beyond the control tower before he turned and headed up to Elizabeth's office, almost being trampled by Rodney as he pushed his way past him.

"Hey, watch it," John shouted up the stairs, hardly surprised when Rodney didn't even look back.

"Are you heading to Elizabeth's office?" John was about to open his mouth when Rodney started speaking again, "good, because I don't want to explain this twice." Quickening his pace, John caught up with Rodney and squeezed through the door at the same time as him, quickly taking a seat in front of the desk.

Elizabeth looked at them both expectantly waiting for one of them to say something. "well," she prompted.

"A sweep of the control tower showed no sign of Bonadan. I've set the teams to search again, extending into adjacent sections of the city."

"No point Colonel." Both John and Elizabeth turned to Rodney, both with expectant expressions.

"And why would that be Rodney?" John asked, the frustration in his voice badly hidden.

"Because, when I finished the programme and the number of people were correlated, well, we're one short."

"How do you explain that?" Elizabeth asked to no one in particular.

"Possibly he was beamed up by the Asgard, or maybe a Wraith dart, although we should have detected a dart and what would the Asgard want with Bonadan. He's hardly the most intelligent person here."

"I think we discount both of those options," Elizabeth said, mostly in an attempt to prevent an argument between John and Rodney. "What does that leave us?"

"Maybe he fell in the ocean," John offered.

"No, the biosensors would have detected him, like with Ford."

Elizabeth sighed, they were getting nowhere. "So, what, he just disappeared? I find that hard to believe. Could it have anything to do with the new lab he was working in?"

"That's possible," Rodney said as he stood up and left her office earing a raised eyebrow from Elizabeth. Not that he saw it.

"I guess he's on it," John muttered before standing up himself and turning to face Elizabeth, "I'm going for some food. Care to join me?" Frowning slightly when she shook her head and pointed at the large stack of papers. "Fine. Just don't stay in here all night." He heard her mumble something as he left her office.

* * *

 

It was two in the morning when the alarms started screaming waking Elizabeth, her head jumping off her desk before she stood up and ran into the control room. "What's going on?"

"I have no idea. There's no incoming wormhole, no Wraith and the Daedalus is on Earth," the tech replied looking at the screens around him frantically.

"Find out what's happening," Elizabeth heard a chorus of 'yes, ma'am' as she turned away to look at the flashing screen behind them.

"Elizabeth," Rodney's presence wasn't unexpected, even at this hour.

"Did you do this?" she asked.

"Sort of." He muttered as he pushed a tech out of the way to access a computer terminal, turning off the alarm. There were several muted sighs of relief as the blaring alarm died and relative peace returned. Turning back to Elizabeth he explained, "I linked the alarm to the biosensors, to alert us if someone else disappeared." Quickly typing instructions on the console, he was sat at, he brought the biosensors up on the screen. Dozens of gold dots were covering the control tower. "three people have disappeared."

"Tell me that includes Dr. Bonadan," she said, a silent plea in her voice.

"No. Including him, four people have gone missing."

"Can you tell who they are?"

"Without linking the biosensors to DNA profiles, no."

Briefly glancing at her watch, Elizabeth let out an exhausted sigh before contacting Sheppard, asking him to set up check-in points in the mess hall for all awake personnel and to send teams room to room I order to find out who had gone missing. "How long would it take for you to link the biosensors to our DNA profiles?" she asked Rodney.

"I have no idea," he yelped indignantly. He was about to complain when he looked up at Elizabeth and saw the worry in her eyes, "but I'll get on it." Nodding her thanks, she headed out of the control room and to the mess hall. When she arrived, there was a line of personnel queuing out the door, both military and science, all with groggy eyes and most with coffee mugs in hand. Heading through the double doors, Elizabeth spotted John stood with several soldiers as they took names and checked them off of lists they'd assembled. Grabbing a mug and filling it to the brim with coffee she joined him as he dismissed the soldiers, watching as they joined the others in taking down names.

"You never left your office did you." John's face was full of concern; she knew he hated it when she worked all night.

"I might have done."

"Liar," his voice was stern, but it held a hint of humour. "If this thing is going to be as bad I'm guessing, Atlantis is going to need its leader well rested." She didn't argue with him, she knew he was right and after a minute he let the subject drop, content to stand their drinking coffee while they waited to find out who had gone. It took hours, but eventually they were handed three names, Ashlee Simms, Tom Quill and Caleb Harris.


	2. Chapter 2

"It makes no sense," Elizabeth stated to the people gathered in front of her in the briefing room, "one scientist and three military personnel are now missing with no trace of where they have gone or how they disappeared. Please, tell me one of you has an idea what is going on here." When all she received were blank stares in return, she shook her head and went on, "Okay. Rodney, how are you doing in linking the biosensors and our DNA profiles?"

"Done. It was easy really, all I had to do was-" he trailed off when he saw everyone looking away. "I also tried to analyse the biological compound Bonadan found. Or should I say, claims to have found. There was nothing there."

"Hang on," Sheppard began, "you're trying to tell me that whatever it was that Bonadan discovered has now disappeared, just like him and three other people. That doesn't strike you as strange?"

"Well, when you put it that way."

"So, what about the notes he made on his discovery," Elizabeth prompted.

"Aye, myself and Dr. Resh have been reading through them," came Carson's thick accent, "she was his lab partner and had been helping him. It appears to be an organic, carbon based compound, that produces energy on its own. Our original theory was that it did this through something similar to photosynthesis but now we're not so sure and without the specimen to study we can't give you a more definitive answer."

"Isn't there anything in the database about it?" John asked.

"There might be but the database is huge, it could take us days maybe even weeks to find it and then translate it."

Turning to Teyla, Elizabeth asked, "have you ever heard of anything like this ever happening?"

"I do recall a story I was told when we were trading on Balmorra, about a planet called Gishcar, however it was many years ago and I believed it to be a simple children's story." Looking at the expectant faces she took a deep breath and plunged into the story, "The told me of a village very similar to their own on another planet that they used to trade with. One day when they stepped through the ring of the ancestors they found everyone in the village dead. All the bodies that they found showed signs of experimentation and torture. Arms had been severed, blood had been drained, and in some case even replaced with different substances, or so we were told. The only clue they ever found to what happened was a diary in the chieftain's home. In it he described how day by day they woke to find that people had disappeared during the night. Within a few days the people began to reappear, dead or near enough. Within weeks the dead outnumbered the living and it was there that chieftain's diary ended. I had believed it to simply be a story designed to scare children, now however, with what is happening here I am no longer so certain."

"That really brightened up the room," John muttered, breaking the silence that had descended. "Guess we add Gishcar, was it?" he asked looking to Teyla who nodded, "to the list of things we need to search through the database for."

"Could raising the shield not prevent anybody from leaving the city?" Teyla asked.

Nodding, Rodney agreed, "it's worth trying."

"And in the meantime, how do we protect everyone living in the city?" When there was no answer Elizabeth sat back in her chair and sighed looking at the people sat around her. They were all exhausted, staying awake on a blend of coffee, adrenaline and fear. "So what you're saying is there's nothing we can do except wait and see if anyone else vanishes?" Elizabeth summarised. "There's nothing we can do?"

"No." Rodney's response dampened the spirits of everyone in the room and with nothing else to do Elizabeth dismissed them watching as they all filed out. John hung back, waiting until the doors folded closed before he went and perched on the table in front of her.

"We'll work it out." When she didn't respond he gently took hold of her face and raised her head so he could look her in the eyes, smiling slightly when her green eyes locked onto his brown ones, "trust me."

"I do trust you John, but I don't like the idea of sitting around and waiting." Moving her head from his palms she ran her hands over her face and stood up, planning to head to the door when John's arm caught her around the waist and turned her to face him. There was slight smile playing on his face as he stood up against her, changing the angle so she was looking up at him. Again he took her face in his hands but waited to see the permission in her eyes before gently kissing her, short and sweet, before pulling back and stepping out of her space. She smiled at him then, for the first time since they'd been handed the names of the latest missing people before heading out to her office and sitting down.

It was a few hours later when the alarms started blaring again and within minutes everyone was in the control room, trying to look over Rodney's shoulder as he furiously typed on his console. "I've found Dr. Bonadan," he finally said, a slight hint of disbelief in his voice. In his mind he'd been expecting to lose someone else.

"Where?" John and Elizabeth said at the same time, causing Rodney to duck away at the sound of their voices so close to his ear.

"East pier." John turned to Elizabeth and seeing her nod, tapped his comms and called a security team together before sprinting off to meet them.

Rodney and Elizabeth tracked the team's movements on the bio scanners and listened with open comms at the brief chatter of SO's as the closed in on Dr. Bonadan's location. As the light gold dots gathered around what Rodney and Elizabeth assumed was Dr. Bonadan they collectively held their breath, not knowing what John and his team were seeing.

"He's dead." John's voice held a vague sense of horror at what he was seeing.

Elizabeth couldn't help but ask, "are you sure?"

"Oh, I'm sure." Elizabeth's shoulders slumped at the certainty in his voice, she had been hoping he was still alive. "We'll take him to the infirmary."

"OK, I'll meet you there," Elizabeth nodded for Rodney to cut the connection before heading down the stairs and away from the control room.

Carson was already stood by a bed in a side room when she arrived, greeting her with a quick, tight smile as she stood beside him. When the infirmary doors opened again they saw John walking towards them his arms behind him, carrying the stretcher with Ronon at the other end. The body on the stretcher was covered with a sheet but already blood had soaked through in some places. The two men placed the stretcher down gently before stepping back and looking to Carson and then Elizabeth. Part of John wanted to ask Elizabeth to leave the room, to spare her seeing a member of the expedition dead but he had too much respect for her to do that. Besides, she'd never agree. The snapping sound of latex gloves pulled him from his thoughts and John looked to Carson as the scot took a deep breath before pulling back the sheet. Opposite him he felt, more than saw Elizabeth flinch and heard Carson's "bloody hell," as all eyes in the room turned to body in front of them.

The skin on Doctor Bonadan's left arm had been removed, the muscles cut through and pinned apart with some kind of thread leaving his bones exposed, what was most eerie though, was his face. His eyes were wide open, locked looking at whatever he had seen last, his mouth frozen in sharp line. Gently Carson tried to close his eyes but found the skin beneath his fingers solid, a concrete like quality to it.

"We tried doing that when we found him," John commented, "couldn't move any of his limbs either." Carson looked up and nodded briefly before returning to the body on the table.

After another minute he stood back from the bed, "this is going to take me a while. I can give you a report when I'm finished."

"Alright, thank you Carson." Moving to the door, John fell in behind Elizabeth with Ronon at his side as they walked the halls of Atlantis back to the control room. Ronon grunted something about sparring and disappeared down one of the corridors leaving John and Elizabeth on their own.

"I hate this, not being able to do anything," Elizabeth said, "it's been two days since this started and we've one person dead and three missing." John could hear the strain in her voice, see the worry in her eyes and he couldn't do anything. He felt just as helpless and it was killing him. By the time they'd reached her office they'd discovered a dejected air about all the personnel of Atlantis and despite Elizabeth stopping and chatting with almost everyone they met it didn't seem to change. John watched as she slumped down in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair before opening her laptop. Seeing her so sad made him want to hold her tight, to protect her from this latest nightmare.

The light was beginning to fade from the windows by the time he spoke again, "come on, it's getting late." When she didn't respond he waited for a minute, watching as her eyes came to life a little before she looked at him.

"I may have a mission for you."

"What do you mean?" he asked, leaving Atlantis in what he felt was a building crisis didn't seem like a great idea.

"I had the computer run a search for Gishcar, or anything similar and it seems to have found something. A small planet that was previously an Ancient outpost during the construction of Atlantis. It seems they abandoned it a few centuries after the city was built. It looks like it may have been a biological research post before they left," pausing to catch her breath, Elizabeth looked across the table to John and saw the same hope mirrored in his eyes. "There may be something there that could help us."

"I hate to play devil's advocate here but if it's the same place then why wasn't an Ancient outpost in Teyla's story?"

"Maybe it was some distance from the gate, or in a whole other location. Perhaps even hidden like some of the other labs you've found. Either way I think it's worth a shot."

"I tend to agree. I can have my team ready to go within the hour," he said as he stood.

"No," Elizabeth stopped him with a weary sigh, "like you said it's late, so late that half your team is probably asleep. You're going to need to be alert. Go first thing. Take Major Lorne's team too, more eyes on this can only be a good thing."

Sheppard stopped and thought for a moment, hearing the sense in her words despite his need to act, "Elizabeth, by that time more people could have disappeared and we could have more bodies coming back."

"I know that John, but if you go out there and miss something we could be in an even worse position than we are now."

Finally nodding in agreement, John left her office with a parting, "We'll leave at oh seven hundred."

Sitting back in her chair, Elizabeth looked across to the control room watching the light gold dots move around on the screen. Most were still and on their own, expedition members asleep and in their quarters or working late sat in labs at computer stations. Knowing that they were finally taking action Elizabeth acknowledged the need for sleep and headed to her own room passing one of Sheppard's security teams as she went. Sweeping her hand over the sensor, Elizabeth headed over to the bed, collapsing into it and snuggling into John's chest as she fell asleep, only to be woken a few hours later when Chuck's voice crackled into her ear.

"We've lost two more people ma'am, Maria Hicks and Eric Samuels."

 "Acknowledged, I'll be there soon," she replied groggily before rolling out of her bed and stumbling to the shower. Part of her was pinning all her hopes that the off world teams would find something on Gishcar before they all disappeared while the other part wondered if there was anything they could do at all.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Elizabeth stood on the catwalk outside her office watching as the chevrons locked in and the 'gate created the wormhole, the familiar surge forward lighting the control room in blue for a moment before it dissipated. Below her stood John's team along with Major Lorne and the three new members of his team. During the siege all of the Major's team had been injured, subsequently transferring out of the expedition leaving Major Lorne with a team consisting solely of himself. Two of the new officers were marines and had come highly recommended from the SGC while the third was Navy officer from England who had the ATA gene. The three of them looked so young to her. Sheppard turned and gave her a brief wave before the teams headed through the 'gate. She waited a moment, watching as the wormhole blinked out and the 'gate became hollow before she headed back to her office. For now, everything seemed to be in their hands.

It was cold when they stepped through the gate, Rodney had said the planet had a similar day-night cycle to the planet Atlantis was on, so by his calculations the sun had only just come up. In front of them stood the remains of a village, long since abandoned judging by the way the wood had rotted on the exterior of the buildings.

"Alright everyone, fan out," Sheppard ordered. Around him the members of both teams began to move cautiously into the village, weapons pointed ahead of them. Rodney stayed back, a biosensor in hand. "You seeing anything on thing?"

"There's no one alive here, if that's what you're asking."

"What about energy signatures that'd indicate Ancient tech?"

"Nothing yet."

"Alright, let's take a look then," he said as he followed the others into the village ruins, ignoring the look McKay gave him. The paths that lined the village had long since been overtaken with grass, leaving only the occasional paving stone visible. As John and Rodney walked through the village the houses they passed became taller, the gardens around the fronts overgrown. Clicking on his radio, he reached out to Teyla. "Is it me or are there more homes here than we're used to seeing?"

"It is not you, Colonel," she replied, "It is rare to find so many homes, the Wraith do not often allow for such large communities."

"So there's a good chance that there's Ancient tech here."

"More than a good chance," Rodney interrupted, jabbing at the screen of his tablet. "I'm picking up energy signals North of here."

"Right," reaching for the radio on vest John clicked it again, "Major Lorne, your team remain here and conduct a complete search of the village, Rodney, Ronon, Teyla, regroup at the northern entrance to the village." Hearing a chorus of 'aye sir' he set off at a jog, grinning when he heard Rodney panting behind him. It took them a few hours to reach the source of the energy signature, a cave hidden half way up a slightly steep cliff and behind a nest of vines. Inside there was very little to see, only two rooms with some old technology. Most of the consoles had stopped working with age, causing Rodney to complain endlessly about how hard his job was.

"Can you power it up or not?" John asked impatiently.

"Yes I can, but it will take time. There's no magic button that says instant power is there now."

"Just get on with it." Heading back to the cave entrance, John looked back the way they'd come, seeing the village in the distance, the sun already tipping past it peak and heading towards the horizon. "Major Lorne, come in," he waited a moment for the other man to acknowledge him before speaking, "how's it going over there?"

"We've finished the search sir. There's a large burial site out east. Looks like it used to be a grave yard but there's an open grave there now, nothing but bones. Lieutenant Shann found a few skeletons in the houses too, poor girl tripped over a femur," he said with a chuckle and John smiled briefly. "Looks like Teyla's story might have been true," Lorne went on, "We've found what we think may have been the chieftains house. There's books stacked floor to ceiling but we can't read them. The language looks like Ancient, or something very similar. Where loading the MALP up now."

"Good work Major. When you're done have your team hold position near the 'gate. Hopefully we won't be too long here. Sheppard out." Clicking off his radio he went back into the lab, seeing Teyla and Ronon sat together in a corner talking quietly while Rodney punched keys on his tablet, the console in front of him illuminated. "How we doing Rodney?"

"I'm downloading all the data from the lab into my tablet, it should only take a few more minutes."

"Good job," turning to Teyla and Ronon Sheppard asked, "did either of you find anything?"

"There is some old equipment," Teyla commented, "much like that on Atlantis in the other room, however there doesn't seem to be anything that tells us what they may have been working on."

"They took everything with them when they left," Ronon interrupted bluntly.

"The only thing we did find was a similar substance to that which we believe Dr. Bonadan was working on. It was in a small storage container on the desk, however, there was a similar container next to it only it was empty."

"Alright, when Rodney's finished we head back to the 'gate." John watched as they both stood up and gathered their equipment before moving to the entrance of the lab. Hearing the scientist's exclamation, John turned round to see Rodney coiling wires up and stuffing them into his bag before standing up and looking at him expectantly.

"Well then, let's go."

The sun was beginning to set by the time they arrived back at the village and began walking through it, the dilapidated houses casting jagged shadows across the paths, adding an eerie quality to the evening. By the time Major Lorne and his team came into view, Sheppard's team was a little jumpy and grateful for the sight of other living beings.

"Took you long enough, Sir," Lorne joked when he saw them come into view before turning to his team, pointing at one of them to dial the gate while another prepared to type in an IDC. "Thought we were going to miss dinner." They all stepped back when the gate engaged before waiting for confirmation that the shield was down to drive the MALP through and head home. The lights were still on full brightness when they stepped through the gate and back into Atlantis. As always Elizabeth was stood waiting for them, the members of the teams instantly looking up to the catwalk where she stood.

"There'll be a debriefing in an hour," she stated, knowing the teams would want time to eat and shower before they discussed the mission. John watched as the three other members of Lorne's team nodded before heading down the hall, the two older marines teasing the young woman who was with them, she simply shook her head and gave as good as she got. Lorne followed them, Teyla and Ronon on his heels while Rodney muttered something about his lab and disappeared down a different corridor. Behind him, a group of SO's began unloading the MALP, looking curiously at the books before turning to Elizabeth as she came down the stairs.

"What do you want us to do with these ma'am?"

Elizabeth took one from the pile and opened the old, creased pages blowing the dust away before leafing through. "Put them in my office," she said before turning to John. "Did you find anything?"

"Found an ancient, Ancient lab," he said, eliciting a small smile from Elizabeth at his wording. "Rodney downloaded the data. I assume he's going to go through it before the briefing. Lorne's team found the books though. He said he thought they were in Ancient. Can you read them?"

"Perhaps." Suddenly she looked sad, "we found Ashlee Simms earlier. She was dead when we found her, but Carson says that she went through similar experiments to Bonadan."

"Well maybe now we've found something that can help us," John said, watching as the soldiers carried the books towards Elizabeth's' office.

In the hour until the briefing John managed to shower, eat and deliver coffee to Elizabeth who was sat translating the journals into something the rest of the expedition could understand. Rodney was the last to arrive, staggering into the control room with his nose pressed against the tablet he was carrying. "You need to see this," he said to no one in particular as he plugged the tablet into the screen in the room. Instantly the display on his tablet was mirrored on the screen, showing the biosensors with a time stamp in the bottom right corner. They waited patiently for him to explain. "This is from this morning, just before Samuels and Hicks disappeared, these are them," he said pointing to two separate dots in different parts of the city. "Now watch," as he hit play the two dots vanished.

"Where'd they go?" John asked.

"Here," Rodney pointed to two dots next to each other in a completely different part of the city.

"How is that possible? Only a second past," Lorne asked, clearly as confused as the rest of them.

Rodney let out a frustrated sigh before pressing play, "I don't know, but it happens four more times before they disappear right here," he said pointing at the dots that were now in Stargate operations. "It happens exactly the same the previous night, except there's three people instead of two. They travel across the city and then vanish when the reach the control room."

"It was in my office when Simms, Quill and Harris disappeared. I never saw them," Elizabeth commented.

"Well, I'm not surprised, they were only there for point five of a second," he said as he sat down at the table, looking round at everyone, "they left their quarters, and managed to travel around the city and disappear in two and a half seconds."

"Well, that's not normal."

"Well, obviously not Colonel state-the-obvious," Rodney snapped back.

"Rodney, John," Elizabeth said in warning, watching as they broke eye contact with each other, "what did you find on the planet?"

"Teyla's story seems to be true," John began, briefly describing the village, "Major Lorne can tell you more," he said nodding over to Evan.

He waited a moment, gathering his thoughts before he began, "my team searched every building in the village. We found the diaries in one of the structures near the centre, presumably the chieftains home. Shann found the remains of the chieftain behind his desk," he said with a smile. The two marines on his team began snickering and the lieutenant herself flushed slightly, but grinned none the less. "We had a look through the pages but couldn't decipher them. There wasn't much else of interest there. Just a lot of skeletons," he finished.

"We on the other hand may have found something of use," Rodney started, "the lab that was left behind had a database similar to the one here, only much, much smaller. I managed to download the data and have already begun going through it."

"Good, have you found anything yet?"

Rodney suddenly looked slightly crestfallen, "no, the translation matrix that Radek designed is very slow."

"I thought you designed that programme," John needled, enjoy the look on Rodney's face.

"Yes, well. Languages aren't really my thing," he muttered, casting a sideways glance at Elizabeth.

"Alright, everyone. Nice work." Looking briefly at her watch she carried on, "it's nine o'clock. That means we have about five hours before someone else disappears."

"If this sticks to the schedule it's been keeping," John added.

"Yes, well. Let's see if we can find anything in these five hours. Rodney, work on the database you found. Ask Zalenka to help. The rest of you, get some sleep." Standing up, she dismissed everyone, watching as they filed out of the room before heading back to her office to carry on translating the journals, sending some down to the language teams in the hopes they might find something she missed.


	4. Chapter 4

Sleep was something Elizabeth had learnt to go without since the expedition began. When they'd still been in Antarctica she'd been able to get an average of six hours a night, less as more discoveries were made and Daniel Jackson joined the team. When they arrived on Atlantis, sleep seemed to become an optional thing for the scientists that had come with them, and they seemed to believe that it must be the same for her. At first she tried to get a solid eight hours a night in a proper bed, but emergency after emergency made that near impossible. After that, she'd started catching power naps in her office, it cut down on travel time every time a scientist needed her to sign off on an experiment that had to begin 'immediately'. So now with a crisis going on in the city, Elizabeth was okay with the lack of sleep, constant hours of work and the biosensors going off in the small hours of every day.

The journals in front of her were old beyond compare, the pages threatening to crumble every time she touched them. Dating them had been her first job, trying to find the ones most relevant to when the villagers began disappearing. Once she'd managed that it became the long task of translating it and writing it down either on the computer or by hand. Having always preferred the feeling of pen and paper and the therapeutic feeling of scribbling out any mistakes, Elizabeth had chosen to write it down by hand. So far, she'd found very little to help them. The accounts written down showed a very similar series of events to what they were enduring now.

Pushing the book away and sitting back, Elizabeth pushed her fingers through her hair and reached for one of the oldest journals. The Language team had taken most of the books, attempting to find anything of use, only to return some of the oldest when they found they were written in a different dialect of Ancient; something they couldn't quite understand. Opening it and looking through, Elizabeth began to see the phonetic patterns, the way the words were written was different, but the language itself was almost the same. After a few minutes of reading, Elizabeth picked up her pen and began writing down what she was translating, focusing more when the Ancient lab John's team had discovered was mentioned. Losing herself in the text, Elizabeth didn't hear John and Rodney burst into her office mid argument.

"We're not going back to Gishcar, Rodney."

"Colonel, you're not listening to me. The data is corrupted; we need to go back. You do know what that means don't you, corrupted means it's useless, we need another copy to see if there's anything useful in the database."

"I know what corrupted means," John ground out as he sat down, "but we're not going back. One mission to that place was enough." Reaching over the table and plucking some the sheets of paper from Elizabeth he began to read through, ignoring Rodney's on going rant and attracting Elizabeth's attention at the same time.

Looking up, Elizabeth took the in the two men in front of her. "What can I do for you gentlemen?"

Seizing his opportunity, Rodney launched into the argument as to why he needed to go back to Gishcar, only to be interrupted by John a few minutes later. "Hey wait," he said tapping Rodney on the arm, "take a look at this." Pushing the papers at the scientist, John reached over the table for the journal.

"This looks like experiment data and results," Rodney's voice was confused as he read through the papers, before looking up at John. "Where did you get this?"

"Don't look at me," he said before pointing at Elizabeth.

Seeing the questions bubbling up on Rodney's lips Elizabeth jumped in first, "It was from this," she pointed at the book, "it seems to be an account of some type of experiment that was done, but on what I'm not sure, there's no direct translation."

"This is what I'm missing," Rodney muttered, a hint of astonishment in his voice, "this is the experiment that they ran on the compound that we saw. Where's the rest of it?" Rodney asked, not looking up from the papers he was holding.

Elizabeth looked slightly offended at that, sputtering out an indignant, "I've not translated it all yet."

"Well, why not?" Rodney asked, seeming genuinely confused at the lack of progress.

"It takes time, Rodney. This wasn't written by someone who spoken Ancient as we know it. It's an older form."

"Can't-" Rodney started, only to be cut off by John.

"How about we get out of Elizabeth's hair and let her translate that journal, that way you get the information quicker." Elizabeth stifled a smile as John grabbed Rodney by the collar and half dragged him out of the room before sitting down and reading the journal.

As he passed the control room he asked Chuck to keep everyone out of her office so she could work in peace. He had a good feeling about the book that was sat on her desk. However, it was a decision he soon came to regret, instead of doing sweeps of the base with his security teams he was stuck dealing with the members of the expedition, mostly scientists who Rodney sent every half hour to see if Elizabeth was done yet. The report of two more personal going missing only managed to damped John's already flagging spirits. Even when Carson arrived with his reports on Dr. Bonadan and Lt. Simms, John found no relief, the details of his reports on the bodies turning even his stomach as he read them. Dr. Bonadan's left arm had been dissected, and under closer examination that Carson had conducted, the bones showed tool marks. Carson had speculated at something similar to Vernier calipers. A similar experiment had been done on Lt. Simms left leg. Both bodies showed the same effects to the skin, and blood tests showed that they had been drugged with something, Carson was still working on analysing the compound he'd extracted, however, he did mention that it seemed very similar, if not identical to the compound Dr. Bonadan had discovered. This time though, it was inert, the element that had allowed it to produce energy was missing.

The sun had risen and was beginning to set again by the time Elizabeth finished the journal. Thankfully not all the pages had been used, the last third remaining blank. Standing and stretching out her protesting muscles, Elizabeth made her way across the catwalk, handing the sheaf of papers to the scientist that had been lurking around for the past hour, too afraid to go back to Rodney empty handed again. The young man smiled gratefully as he took the papers and ran down the stairs. She wandered over to John and stood next to him as she listened to him briefly explain everything that had happened while she'd been in her office.

"I need coffee," Elizabeth grumbled.

Hearing John mutter, "I can imagine," she was about to head to the commissary when the gate room was subjected to what they could only describe as black light, the space in front of the gate suddenly darkening, yet still casting shadows across the floor. There was a thump before the light disappeared and on the floor where it had been lay Tom Quill. After a second of staring in shock, both John and Elizabeth rushed down the stairs, Elizabeth already calling for a medical team. The marines' eyes were open when they reached him, his foot decimated by the experiments he'd endured. Out of instinct Elizabeth reached out to take his pulse, yelping in shock when his head rolled to the side and he reached out. Briefly looking at John, Elizabeth reached out and took the marines' hand feeling as his fingers squeezed slightly and his lips began to move. Bending her head over his mouth she tried to make out his whispers, only just able to understand his words. After a moment his hand went slack in hers and when she leant back, Elizabeth could see his lips had stopped moving.

"Is he?" she asked John, watching as he took the man's pulse.

"He's alive," John said in vague amazement, "but I don't know how long for." Rocking back on his heels he made way for Carson and his team to get through, watching as Elizabeth did the same, both of them following the team to the infirmary.

"What did he say to you?" John asked as they stood, waiting for Carson.

"He said 'whispers. Whispers at night'. I don't really understand what he wanted to tell me."

By the time Carson came and spoke to the two of them Elizabeth was almost asleep, her head resting against the wall, only opening her eyes fully when she stood up to talk to the doctor.

"He's alive," Carson started, "but he's on a ventilator. By the time we got him here, he'd stopped breathing and was in cardiac arrest."

"Will he live?" John asked, receiving his answer when Carson shook his head.

"His kidneys have begun to fail. The substance we found in the others is in his blood as well. It seems to be acting as some kind of paralytic. We've put him on dialysis to try and filter it out but it doesn't seem to be working. Once his kidneys fail, the rest of his organs won't be far behind. Sgt Quill is in coma and I don't think he's going to wake up. For now though, there's nothing we can do but wait," he said, watching as they looked down, disappointed that they couldn't do more. "You need to sleep," Carson added, seeing Elizabeth's shoulders slump in exhaustion, "You too Colonel Sheppard."

"I'm alright for a few more hours," John said.

"Aye, you might be for a few hours but then you'll crash. No, you both need to sleep, doctor's orders," he finished, internally grinning when he saw defeat in Elizabeth's eyes before shooing them both out of the infirmary.

"I'll stay on watch until after the 2 am 'window'," John said, referring to the time the disappearances had taken place.

"Thank you, John," Elizabeth said before she turned down a different corridor to her quarters, collapsing onto her bed fully dressed, only just awake enough to pull her boots off.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Original Character gets introduced in this chapter. She's in this for s very specific reason which will become apparant later on.

It felt like she'd only been asleep for ten minutes when Elizabeth woke up. There was a whispering coming from the door and bolt of fear ran down her spine as she remembered Quill's words. Tapping her earpiece, Elizabeth tried to reach John, waiting a moment when she got no answer before trying again, "John, can you hear me?" When he didn't reply Elizabeth began to feel panic creeping in at the corners of her mind. Standing up and sliding into her shoes, Elizabeth made her way to the door, waving her hand over the sensor to open it. Instantly she felt a chill on her bare arms, without her jacket her shirt was doing little to combat the coolness of the corridors. Elizabeth tapped her comms again, "This is Dr. Weir, can anyone hear me?" she asked, listening to the static a moment before a voice crackled into her ear.

"Dr. Weir?" The voice was quiet, speaking almost in a whisper.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Lt. Shann," the voice answered and in her mind, Elizabeth conjured up an image of the young woman on Major Lorne's team. "Where are you, ma'am? I'll come and meet you."

"I'm at my quarters." Quickly Elizabeth told her where her quarters were listening as the lieutenant repeated them back to herself under her breath.

"Alright I'll be there in a few minutes Dr. Weir." Hearing the connection click off in her ear, Elizabeth headed a little way down the corridor, looking around for the source of the noise that seemed to be everywhere at once. In the dark the familiar corridors turned menacing. Turning round to head back to her quarters, Elizabeth was surprised to see the lieutenant stood behind her, having not heard her approach. Again she looked so very young to her eyes, wearing leggings and an oversized t-shirt, her hair falling out of its tight braid around her face and her feet bare except for a pair of mismatched socks.

Nodding to the woman stood in front of her, she asked, "Have you been able to reach anyone on the comms."

Shann shook her head, "No and there's something bloody strange going on. To get here I had to pass a few other rooms. I opened the doors, looking for someone else. There were people inside but they were," she paused a moment, searching for the right word, "still, like they were frozen in the middle of whatever it was they were doing. It doesn't make sense."

"Show me," Elizabeth said, following Shann as she headed across the corridor to the room opposite. The door opened after a second, slower than normal, Shann pushing against it in effort to speed it up. The Lieutenant waved her inside a moment later. Inside sat Kate Heightmeyer, her legs tucked under her and a book in hand, the page halfway turned. Elizabeth moved to stand in front of her, reaching out to take her hand, finding it solid and unmovable. Trying to move the paper was the same. "Do you have any idea what's causing this?"

"Sorry, ma'am but I have no idea."

"It's alright. Did you see anyone else awake on your way here?" Elizabeth watched as she shook her head.

"One thing I did notice was change in the volume of that whispering. Maybe if we find the source of it we can work out what the hell is going on," she said, her voice hopeful.

Again Quill's words ran through her mind, "I'm not so sure about that," she said, briefly explaining what the sergeant had said, watching as the Shann's face paled slightly and her eyes widened.

"Okay, what about heading to the control room?"

"That might work, Rodney may be there along with the rest of the night shift, perhaps we can attract their attention but it is the location that everyone else has disappeared from."

Exhaling slowly, lieutenant Shann nodded before heading back out into the corridor with Elizabeth following. Quietly following Shann along the halls, Elizabeth tried to puzzle out what was happening. Kate had been like a statue, frozen in movement, not even blinking in all the time they'd been stood in front of her despite the fact that they both seemed to be moving normally. Around them Atlantis was eerily still, the only sound the ever present whispering. Suddenly Shann stopped in front of her, her head canted slightly to the side.

"Ma'am, is it me or is that noise getting louder?"

"Now that you mention it," Elizabeth muttered nodding in agreement.

"Maybe we try a different route then," Shann said, turning down a different corridor and stepping onto the metal walkway and down the stairs to the floor below, rounding a corner. Following her lead, Elizabeth came round the corner to see Shann standing still again, her eyes fixed on the shadows. Looking through the gloom, Elizabeth saw what had caused the Lieutenant to stop. Someone was stood in the shadows, the figure tall and thin. They both watched as it turned, the whispering around them suddenly climbing in volume until it was almost deafening. Watching as it began to approach, Elizabeth felt the hairs on her arms begin to stand on end and out of the corner of her eye saw Lieutenant Shann shiver even as she pulled a gun from under the back of her shirt. As the figure got closer, Elizabeth began to make out some of the details of its face causing her heart to thump harder in her chest. Feeling a tapping on her arm Elizabeth looked at Shann by her side, watching as she mouthed "run." Nodding in agreement, Elizabeth watched as the Lieutenant raised one hand slightly from the grip on her gun, just enough for her to notice and begin counting down from three with her fingers. The moment she made a fist, Elizabeth turned and ran, he boots thudding on the floor.

Turning down corridor after corridor, Elizabeth kept having to look back to see if Shann was still behind her, the young woman's footsteps almost silent a she skidded around the corners. When the whispering quieted they both slowed to a stop, looking around themselves to see which part of the city they were in.

"We can make it to the control room from here pretty quick," murmured Shann. Again Elizabeth nodded, following her around the corners, eyes alert for anything hiding in the shadows. A small part of her wished it was John who was with her. John, who she could communicate with without a word, who she could sense when he was near, who was an older and more seasoned officer and had seen more of the galaxy than the lieutenant she was with. Still, Elizabeth trusted her, had no choice but to.

When they stepped into the control room both women stopped and stared, the scene before them unlike anything they could have expected. The ops centre was full of people, the terminals lit, the light casting shadows on the faces of those sat by them, except the people and the screens were still. The data that normally ran across the terminals was frozen and so were the people. There was no sound, no idle chatter, no orders being given, no alarms bleeping or blaring, just silence. Taking the lead this time, Elizabeth headed up the stairs towards everyone, carefully stepping around a technician who was frozen mid step. When she reached John, she stood in front of him, trying to shout his name and getting no response. Stand up on her toes, she placed her hands on his cheeks, gently kissed him, hoping that he would feel her, even if it was only for a moment. Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth could see Shann reaching around Rodney, trying to get a look at the read out on the tablet he was holding, but the lieutenants' eyes were on Elizabeth.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't mention that to anyone," Elizabeth said as she stepped back. She didn't need the gossip and theories about them to spin completely out of control.

Shann shrugged her shoulders, "not my business," she said as she hopped up and pulled herself up onto Rodney's arm, balancing most of her weight on him, her toes only just touching the floor and bent her head to read the tablet. For a second she was quiet, her eyes flicking from side to side as she read the screen. "It's saying there's the beginning of an energy spike building up in the Stargate." Suddenly she flinched back, thumping her head on Rodney's nose.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked concerned.

"The data on the screen just changed. With everything being so still it took me by surprise." Again she leant on Rodney's arm, his skin as solid as rock. "A second just passed," her tone was unbelieving as she looked up, her eyes meeting Elizabeth's.

"Rodney did say that only two and half seconds passed in which the disappearances happen."

Dropping down from Rodney's arm, Shann turned back to the Stargate, her gaze focused ahead. "We're next, aren't we?" she asked, voicing the fear that Elizabeth had felt building since she woke up. Elizabeth was about to answer when the whispering started again, the noise echoing of the walls of the control room. Again the hairs on her arms stood on end and she began to shiver, beside her she felt Shann have the same reaction. "We should leave, ma'am."

"I don't think that's an option anymore." From the hallways either side of the control room shadows had begun to emerge and from them the creatures they had seen in the hallways. From behind them, a shadow slid through the wall, the whispering suddenly in both their ears, so close they could feel the vibrations in their skulls. The sudden appearance propelled Elizabeth down the stairs, Shann close on her heels. When they were stood in front of the 'gate Elizabeth looked around again, seeing the creatures all around them, closing in, their mouths cast in a hideous mockery of a smile. Backing up slightly, Elizabeth watched as Shann again pulled the gun from the back of her shirt and levelled it at the closest creature. Elizabeth could see the lieutenants' lips move, but couldn't hear what she said over the deafening whispers, couldn't hear as she fired a shot, only seeing the gun recoil in her hands. The figure she fired at looked down at its shoulder before looking back at her and reached out to her, revealing grotesquely long fingers and sharpened nails that scraped the skin on Shann's fingers. Elizabeth watched as the gun dropped out of the lieutenants' hands and clattered to the floor, her face a mask of horror. With nothing behind them but the Stargate, Elizabeth knew they were trapped, slowly being forced backwards until her heels bumped the cool metal. Around her the creatures had formed a tight circle with nowhere to go but backwards still, into the space behind the gate. Lifting her foot, Elizabeth took another step back, the ring of the 'gate directly above her head. As she went to put her foot down again Elizabeth never found the floor, the ground dropping away into nothing. With the unexpected loss of balance, she tipped backwards and fell.


	6. Chapter 6

John had just been reaching for his cheek when the alarms started howling and Rodney suddenly dropped his tablet and clutched his arm as though something had snapped it in two. In the back of his mind he was sure he'd felt Elizabeth's lips against his face, he was so sure he could feel her presence he cast a quick glance over his shoulder at her office, shocked to see it dark. He'd been so certain. By the time he'd shaken the feeling off Rodney had his tablet back in hand and the alarm had stopped chiming.

"Alright, who this time?" John asked in a weary voice.

Beside him Rodney punched the screen of his tablet a few times, his brow furrowed in concentration, "Two people, err, let me bring it up," he said, his voice trailing off. "Lieutenant Shann and oh God," he paused dropping the arm the was holding the tablet to his side and John watched as his face turned the colour of ash, "Doctor Elizabeth Weir."

For a moment John was sure he had misheard, but all around him people had stopped, staring at him and Rodney with dumbfounded, horrified expressions. Elizabeth couldn't have become a victim of this, she just couldn't. For a moment John's mind was in turmoil.

"Are you sure," John demanded, his voice almost pleading for it to be a mistake. Seeing the horror in Rodney's eyes John knew he was. "Right," he sighed, "where did they disappear from?"

"In front of the 'gate, same as everyone else." John followed Rodney's gaze as he looked down the stairs to the Stargate, staring at the empty space. Around him operations had come to a standstill and people turned to look at John for guidance. "Right, everyone back to work," his voice was dejected but calm and around him quiet chatter started.

"I'm going back to my lab, maybe Zalenka will have come up with something since I've been gone." Normally John would have made a joke at that, Rodney always insisted that he was smarter than the Czech. Him saying that told John exactly how much this had affected him.

Turning his back on Ops John walked down stairs and was about to head back down to the infirmary when something caught his eye. Heading over the to the 'gate he bent down and picked up the gun that was lying there. He was certain it hadn't been there a minute ago. Tapping his comms he contacted the armoury, "Do we have any weapons unaccounted for?"

"Yes Sir, several," the reply came.

"Any nine mills?"

"Yes, Sir, one nine millimetre pistol. It was issued to Lt. Shann a couple of days ago. She never checked it back in." Letting the connection die he continued to look at the gun in confusion before ejecting the clip and counting the bullets, coming up one short. Quickly smelling the muzzle John confirmed that it had been fired recently. From the opposite side of the room Rodney watched him for a moment before curiosity got the better of him and he wandered over looking at the weapon in John's hand.

"Where'd that come from?" John was about to answer when the tablet in Rodney's hand began to bleep. "Huh."

John raised his eyebrows as he watched Rodney tapping at his tablet, waiting for an explanation. "Well," he prompted.

"Oh, the internal sensors are detecting a faint energy signal. Seems that when you picked that up the sensors detected the movement of it."

"Wait, are you telling me that this gun has an energy signature?"

"Well, technically everything has an energy signature. After all matter is just atoms and unless they're at zero degrees' kelvin they're constantly vibrating creating an energy signal. This though," he said reaching out for the gun in John's hand, "is producing an energy signal that's not its own. Perhaps if we can find out what causes this energy signature we can find out what's happening," he finished happily before turning and heading out of the room while John looked around. Part of John was pleased that the gun had been fired, it meant in his mind that whoever had fired it, most likely Lt. Shann, had been trying to defend them and protect her superior officer, the other part of him was worried about what it was the lieutenant had felt the need to fire at.

In his ear John's coms began to crackle before Carson's voice came through, "Colonel Sheppard, can you come down to the infirmary."

"On my way," John said automatically, remembering his original destination. His feet began to move without his mind consciously telling him too. Without the distraction of Rodney and other members of the team the crushing horror of losing Elizabeth was coming back. Deep down he'd know that there was a chance that one of them would disappear but he'd assumed it would be him, he'd been the one who'd found Bonadan, who'd gone to Gishcar, who'd been inside the Ancient lab. He was the one who normally got into ridiculous situations, not Elizabeth. She was the one who got him out of trouble. This time though the roles were reversed and John couldn't shake the nagging fear that the next time he saw her she'd be a mutilated corpse. Without his realising it John was stood inside the infirmary, Carson's voice cutting through his musing.

"Colonel, have you been able to reach Dr. Weir? I can't seem to get a hold of her."

"See disappeared half an hour ago," he stated flatly, his thoughts still elsewhere, "why did you need to see me?"

Carson froze for a moment, his mind assimilating what he'd just been told, his head bowed before he looked John in the eye, "how are you coping with that?"

"Fine," John said, pulling a face at what he thought Carson was insinuating. He was sure no one knew.

"Aye, if you say so. Anyway I thought you would like to know Dr. Resh and I seem to have identified the substance Bonadan had discovered. However, it's only a theory since we haven't got a real sample to examine."

"Don't hold me in suspense doc."

"Blood. We think it may be blood. We've detected something that is remarkable similar to human plasma as well as platelets and something similar to red blood cells. We think the reason we didn't realise before is there's no haemoglobin for oxygen to bind too. Instead it appears that it's the alternative protein that's creating the energy."

"So Dr. Bonadan's alternative energy source was mutant blood?"

"No, not mutant, alien."

"Alright, thanks doc." John was more lost than ever as he left the infirmary, his mind swirling with the possibility that there may be an alien threat involved in this. If there was something chasing Elizabeth before she disappeared, then it would make sense why everyone had seemed to be running across the entirety of Atlantis in the seconds before they vanished. Normally you only ran if you were trying to escape something. Or something is hunting you. It would also explain why Shann had fired her gun, if only the bullet had left a body behind. Maybe I don't need a body, John thought and suddenly he was running back to the control room.

Standing himself in front of the gate he held his hands out as though he was aiming his gun, levelling it at the walls of Atlantis before remembering Shann was somewhat smaller than himself. Bending his knees and correcting the angle of his arms so he was aiming upwards John began scanning the pale walls of Atlantis, ignoring the confused looks he was receiving from the other on duty personnel. He was about to give up on finding anything when he spotted a crack in the smooth walls. Dropping his arms, he walked over and began running his fingers over the smooth stone, finding the hole and the bullet lodged inside. With a little effort the bullet fell out into his palm leaving a smear of a black, sticky liquid that to John felt an awful lot like blood. Momentarily, his mind questioned who the blood belonged to, the sickening thought that Shann had accidentally shot Elizabeth flickering through his thoughts. So much so that he contacted Lorne to meet him. It took a few minutes for the Major to arrive, his eyes sleepy and hair almost as messy as John's.

"Colonel," he greeted with a smile. The sight made John's stomach drop. No one had told him about his lieutenant.

"Major," pausing for a moment John tried to find the right words, looking at the bullet nestled in his palm. "What kind of shot is lieutenant Shann?"

"Excellent shot. Why do you ask?" Confusion was creeping into to the Major's voice, his brow creasing with concern.

"You heard the alarms go off a little while ago?" Receiving a nod in answer he went on, "we lost Dr. Weir and your lieutenant Shann." John could do nothing but watch as Lorne's face fell, his shoulder slumping.

"She's a good kid." For a moment Lorne watched John, trying to work out what it was he was he wanted from him. "You're worried about Dr. Weir?" This time it was John's turn nod. "Shann will look after her. That girl is as loyal as they come, smart too. Dr. Weir is in good hands John." For a second Lorne looked at the floor, his heart heavy. He'd grown quite fond of his new team, the thought of losing one of them would be hard to take. "Trust me Colonel," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "she'll do whatever she can to keep Elizabeth safe." John was quiet by his side, only just hiding his emotions. Lorne's words had comforted him a little, but he couldn't help but wish it was him who was with her, not a lieutenant he hardly knew.


	7. Chapter 7

When Elizabeth's consciousness came back to her she was aware of a crushing coldness, the air around her damp and chilly. Her arms and legs ached as she sat up and when she ran her hands over her elbows she found grazes, still bleeding and tender to the touch. Squinting to try and see through the gloom Elizabeth identified three solid walls surrounding her, the fourth open but with equally solid bars running horizontal to the floor and fitted closely together. She couldn't find a door. Lying beside her Elizabeth was relieved to find Lt. Shann, her eyes still closed but her chest was rising and falling with each breath she took. The young woman's presence helped to ease the anxiety clawing in Elizabeth's mind. Standing, she went over to the bars of their cell peering out into the gloom. There were no lights outside and the small strip of light emanating from the ceiling only offered a slight glow. She could hear soft sounds, whispering she thought, but not like the whispering back on Atlantis, more human, more warm. Part of her wanted to call out, to see if anyone responded, the other part of her was afraid to, afraid to call her captures to her. Retreating to the back of her cell, Elizabeth slid down the wall and carefully pulled Shann's body closer, her head settled on her thighs. It was then that Elizabeth realised she'd never asked the young woman her first name, couldn't even recall it from when her file crossed her desk and she approved Shann for the expedition. She couldn't help the sudden well up of guilt in her chest; It was her who'd approved her to come to Atlantis, to this. Eventually the warmth from the lieutenants' body was enough to lull her into a daze, content to wait for now. For what though she wasn't sure.

It could have been hours later or just minutes when Elizabeth noticed a change in the lieutenants breathing. She watched as her eyes opened, her pupils hardly contracting as they adjusted to the light, before she slowly sat up and glanced around. Elizabeth pulled her knees up to her chest and couldn't help but regret the loss of warmth that Shann had been providing in her unconscious state.

Elizabeth gave her a few minutes, watching as she walked around the cell, following the same checks and search that she herself had done only a short time ago. When, finally she sat back down beside her Elizabeth couldn't help but say, "I don't know you given name Lieutenant," even without realising it Elizabeth had whispered, her voice as hushed as those she thought she heard earlier.

"Jennifer, ma'am. Most people call me Jen, though." Her voice was just as quiet as Elizabeth's but it held the traces of a smile.

"Well then, Jen, do you have any ideas how to get out of here?"

"Unless you can squeeze though a six-inch gap, ma'am, then no. I can't even see a way to open those bars. No hinges, no imperfections, not even a dent. The only thing I can think of is that they slide straight into the walls."

"I'd assumed pretty much the same thing," Elizabeth replied, her voice soft, "about not being able to get through, not them sliding into the walls." Beside her, Elizabeth felt more than heard Jen chuckle. Elizabeth couldn't help but replay their last moments in Atlantis over, trying to work out what the hell was happening. It had all happened so fast back in the city, most of the time spent running. The 'gate room was especially vivid, how they'd been surrounded, forced backwards, unable to do anything but surrender. Elizabeth glanced at Shann, her fingers twisted together, impatiently moving, gripping into how she'd held her gun before. "You shot one of them," Elizabeth couldn't help but say, "why?"

"Last ditch effort," she murmured quietly, watching Elizabeth out of the corner of her eye, seeing when she didn't quite believe her answer. "You're my superior officer, it's my duty to defend you." Her voice was calm and level, as though she'd never given it a thought. "Not that it did much good," she grumbled after a moment, her face pulled in an expression of disgust. Elizabeth took that in, unsure of what to say. It wasn't the answer she'd been expecting, although she wasn't sure what it was she had been expecting.

Finally, with nothing else to say, Elizabeth mumbled, "so now we wait."

For minute they sat still, the silence ringing in their ears, before Elizabeth felt Jen's muscles tense. "I've never been the waiting type," Shann said before she sprang up again and went to the bars of their cell. Elizabeth waited a moment before joining her.

"What are you hoping to find?"

"No idea," she said, "hopefully, something." Elizabeth watched as she pushed her arm through one of the gaps between the bars, sliding her arm along until her shoulder was pushed up against the wall, the rest of her arm disappearing into the darkness. "I think there's something on the wall," she said in hushed voice. "I can feel something. Maybe if I can-" she trailed off.

Elizabeth waited a moment, "maybe if you can what?"

"I think I can move some of the switches, but I can't find them again." For a while she was quiet, her eyes flicking back and forth in concentration, the muscles along her upper arm tensing occasionally. Suddenly she yelled, jumping away from the bars causing Elizabeth to flinch back too.

"What happened," Elizabeth demanded as Shann pushed her arm back though.

Ignoring her Jennifer raised her voice, "Hello?" For a few moments there was silence before someone spoke.

"Hello?" The voice was quiet, nervous, but most definitely human.

Lt. Shann turned her head to Elizabeth, smiling slightly in encouragement. "It's Dr. Weir and Lt. Shann," Elizabeth said, her voice raised but gentle. "Who are we speaking to?"

"It's Dr, Harris, from the bio-mechanics department. Everyone else is gone."

"Gone?" Elizabeth asked, a sudden chill running down her spine, "What do you mean gone?"

"They take us and most of the time, we don't come back. Tom didn't, neither have Ashlee, Eric, or Maria." Beside her Shann shut her eyes and bowed her head, her arm still pushed through the bars. "Captain Burren and Dr. McNeil were taken a few hours ago."

"Have you tried moving any of these switches?" Shann asked suddenly, her fingers clinging onto one.

"Sgt. Quill did, but he couldn't move them." Elizabeth saw Shann pull a face and heard her smack the wall in frustration before she pulled her arm back through, her skin red where the bars had been pressed. Suddenly the lights came on, flooding the rooms with blinding brightness causing both of them to squint. For a moment Elizabeth couldn't see anything and she brought her hand up to shade her eyes while they adjusted. When, finally, she could see again, Elizabeth looked around. Across from the cell they were in were another line of unoccupied cells, the bars missing.

Beside her Shann had her face pressed against the bars as she looked down one end of the corridor before she pulled back, "they're coming," she whispered urgently. Grabbing the lieutenants' shoulders, Elizabeth pulled her to the back of the cell as they heard the footsteps of several people getting closer and the bars blocking the cell blinked out of existence. "So much for that theory," Shann muttered under her breath. From the cell next to them they could hear Harris pleading followed by silence then the same harsh whispering from Atlantis. Elizabeth watched as Shann dropped into a defensive stance and tried to creep forward a few steps, intending to see what was happening, confused when her feet refused to move. Elizabeth was just about to try herself when the creatures came into view.

Part of Elizabeth wanted to scream at the sight of them. Without their cloak of shadows Elizabeth could finally make them out. The long fingers she had seen before in the 'gate room followed up to equally long, thin arms and shoulders. Ink black skin covered the torso which was nothing more than bones, the skin stretched over something similar to ribcage. Where there should have been an abdomen containing internal organs there was nothing, the skin cutting in under the ribs and twisting around the spinal column in grotesque, uneven layers before flaring out again and encasing the hips and traveling down immensely long legs that were built more like a dogs than any human she had seen. The creature seemed to balance on the balls of its feet, walking in jerking motion, the sharp curved nails on its toes clicking on the floor with every step. Finally, pulling her eyes back to the 'face' Elizabeth made sure to look it in the eye, no matter how terrified she felt. The eye's she looked into though had no pupil or iris, just large white spheres pressed into a smooth black skinned skull that made up its head. There was no nose nor ears, but for a mouth there was an oversized split in the skin extending way up past where any human mouth would go, the lips parted by long needle-like teeth that protruded out at an angle.

The sight made Elizabeth shiver and in front of her she could see Jen shaking, but still holding the position she'd taken up. When one of the creatures raised its arm and pointed at the lieutenant, Elizabeth could feel the terror that ran through the young woman, could feel it mirrored in her own body. Another two of the creatures swept in with clicking steps and took a hold of Shann by the arms and began to half carry, half drag her out of the cell, her legs flailing as she kicked and screamed. Elizabeth tried to rush forward to help Shann but found she couldn't move, her feet frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch as she kicked and writhed with no success. When the bars reappeared Elizabeth ran up to them, glad she could move her feet, and pressed her face to them, hearing more than seeing as Jennifer disappeared down the corridors before the lights blinked out.


	8. Chapter 8

The briefing room was full and John couldn't help but feel out of place as he stood at the head of the table in Elizabeth's normal space. Mostly he wanted to take a step to the right, leave her seat empty for when she came back, because in his mind she was defiantly coming back. He couldn't let himself believe otherwise or he wouldn't be a fit leader for anyone. Looking to his right, Evan Lorne smiled back, his own face pulled with sadness at his lost lieutenant.

Finally, having had enough of the idle chatter John raised his voice, "alright everyone. Settle down. We have another two dead personnel and currently no way to rescue the other five who are missing." Quickly the room quieted, all the faces turning to him as he sat down and looked at Carson. "Have you finished working on the bullet I brought you?"

"Aye, we have," came Carson's broad accent, "it was defiantly the same as what Bonadan found and most certainly blood, but from what kind of organism I have no idea."

"And what made him think it could be used as power source?" Rodney asked, looking between Carson and Dr. Resh.

"Instead of haemoglobin there's another protein bound to what we would normally see as red blood cells, although in the case of this blood, they appear to all intents and purposes to be black. This alternate protein produces energy through something similar to photosynthesis except without the input of light," Dr. Resh explained, watching as Rodney and Zalenka frowned at her explanation.

"So what you're saying is you have no idea," Rodney grumbled scornfully, glaring at the woman.

"And what have you found Rodney?" John asked quickly, attempting to stop an argument.

"Well, let's see. Zalenka and I have identified the energy signature that was on that gun you found, we have also gone through the journal Dr. Weir translated and been able to follow the experiment, oh and possibly found an explanation on how people could have travelled through the city at something short of the speed of light."

"Good, feel free to share," John's voice was lacking in the patience and understanding that Elizabeth always managed.

"The energy signature we discovered seems to be resonating at a frequency that is not from this spatial plain," Zalenka began to explain, the words heavily accented. "It seems that somehow the pistol came in contact with this different zone and the frequency attached itself to the metal."

"Yes, yes," Rodney sputtered, "what he means to say is that when people disappear it's that they slip from this plain of existence to another one, possibly through a rift that can be opened and closed at will or is just fluctuating. It's this which we have been seeing as momentary power spikes throughout the city."

"There's too much consistency for this to be random fluctuations though, surely," Lorne suggested, still trying to puzzle out the science that had been thrown at him.

"I'd tend to agree Major," Rodney continued, "I think it's this that is effecting how fast the victims are moving. It is possible that when this plain interacts with our own time, everything speeds up for those who have come in contact with the specific frequency while those unaffected remain at normal speed. This frequency seems to affect how fast their molecules vibrate, therefore effecting how fast they move. Where this frequency is coming from and how it is effecting only certain people, were still working on that."

"Is it possible to recreate this power spike so we can go through and bring our people back?" Lorne asked.

"I don't know, maybe. But we have no idea where the fluctuation would take you or if we can even pass through it without moving at the speeds everyone seems to have been achieving, or if when you're deposited on the other side of this 'fluctuation' what sort of environment you'll be faced with."

"So in other words, you've got nothing," John growled, frustrated at Rodney's seeming lack of progress and inadvertently turning Rodney's words back against him.

"Oh yes, we've got nothing," Rodney sputtered sarcastically. "After days of working on a solution and ploughing through so much information in the database and completing calculations and experiments and coming up with theory after theory, we've got nothing. We may not have complete plan to serve up to the military on plate yet but at least were getting there. What have the military done? Huh. You've not stopped anyone from disappearing. You've not been able to explain how it's happening?" By the time Rodney had finished he was on his feet, his face red from yelling, his breath coming in short gasps.

"Well if you had a solution then the military could go in and rescue our people instead of waiting around." John's voice was just loud, the harsh edge to his voice making almost everyone gathered wince.

"That is enough," Teyla's raised voice was calm despite every muscle in her body being wire tight. "Yelling at each other is solving nothing and helping no one. Perhaps we should end this meeting now and return to work." Murmurs of agreement ran around the tables and one by one the scientists fled the room, desperate to be as far away as possible. John stayed where he was watching as they left and Radek pulled Rodney from the room, still complaining about the military. Beside him, Lorne shuffled his feet uncomfortably, waiting for Sheppard to dismiss him.

Teyla stayed behind, waiting for everyone to leave before she spoke to John, her voice lower. "You should not have lost your temper. Dr. Weir would not be pleased with how you are handling this situation."

"I'm not Dr. Weir though," John growled, still angry at Rodney, at everyone. "I don't know how to put up with all this scientific crap. I'm no good at waiting. I need to do something."

Sighing heavily, Teyla sat back down. "I know how much Dr. Weir means to you and how difficult it must be to have her taken away like this, but for now you must be patient John. Patient enough for Rodney to find a solution to this and to give you something you can act on. Until then you must control Atlantis the way Elizabeth would want you too, to take command and lead."

Slumping back down into his chair John groaned, running his hands through his messy hair. "I know you're right Teyla. I'm just no good at this."

"Perhaps you should begin by apologising to Dr. McKay. He will be far easier to work with if you are not at each other's throats." She watched as John nodded, the anger seeming to leave him, his muscles slackening before he stood up and left, leaving Teyla alone.

John's trip to Rodney's lab was a humbling one, his honesty apology to Rodney accepted. "We may have plan," Rodney said, as John was turning to leave, "If we can amplify the energy signature we've discovered by using the Stargate's capacitors then we may be able to hold the fluctuation open when it occurs and send our own people through, but you'd be going in blind and probably moving a lot slower than everything on the other side. If you give me some more time I may be able to stabilise the fluctuation and find a way to speed you and your team up." Nodding his thanks John left the lab with a faint hint of hope in his heart.

* * *

 

John watched impatiently as Rodney and his team began fixing what Rodney had called 'high conductivity metals' to the Stargate, coiling the wires around the ring like tinsel on a tree. Teyla was stood at his side, her hope to keep him and Rodney from killing each other while Lorne stood at his other, his acting second in command. He'd already told Teyla she didn't need to be here; the anger he'd felt at losing Elizabeth had morphed into acceptance of her disappearance. His only hope now was currently stood at the bottom of the stairs yelling at Zalenka.

"We have maybe five minutes before the next fluctuation and your calculations aren't ready?"

"No Rodney," came Zalenkas' frustrated reply, "I told you the calculations we worked on don't take into account the Stargate's ability to hold a charge. If the charge from this fluctuation continues to feed into the 'gate and build a sufficient static-electric charge, then the capacitors will overload. It could shatter the naquadah in the Stargate."

"No they won't, we've connected the Stargate to the grounding stations. That will allow the excess charge to dissipate safely."

"I'm telling you it won't be enough," he replied in a shout. Having rarely heard Zalenka yell Rodney was slightly surprised, only staring at him for a moment before his tablet began to bleep. Turning away from the Czech he looked up to the control room.

"We have two minutes." With one last look at the 'gate Rodney turned and began climbing the stairs to operations, Zalenka close on his heels.

John looked between the two scientists, the glimmer of hope he'd felt earlier had vanished with their argument. "What are the chances that this is going to work?"

"Ninety percent," was Rodney's confident reply, while Zalenka simultaneously mumbled "thirty-five percent at best."

Exhaling slowly John looked at the Stargate. The technicians had retreated to the corners of the room, watching and waiting for something to happen. Part of him wanted to be stood in front of the 'gate, to charge through when the fluctuation appeared and bring his missing people home, to bring Elizabeth home, the other part of him knew that was stupid. Rodney's plan might not even work; Zalenka seemed convinced it was going to blow up. "How long have we got Rodney."

"One minute to two."

Around him Stargate operations became quiet, the personnel collectively holding their breath. When Rodney's tablet bleeped John quickly cast a glance at him watching as Rodney nodded. "There's a charge beginning to build in the gate." Feeling his muscles tense John looked around him, sure he could feel someone there, quickly looking back as a dark shadow formed just behind the Stargate. Again hope built in his chest, only to be quickly extinguished as the wire wrapped around the ring quickly sparked and exploded, snapping free of the gate and slapping to the floor, the excess charge making them pop and spark like wire in water before they became still. Rodney was already punching at his tablet, reading through the data he'd received during the power spike.

"What happened?" John asked quickly, his voice holding a hint of defeat as he hurriedly added, "did we lose anyone else?"

"One person, Zeke Marshal, he works in the language division.”

"OK, what about this?" he asked again, gesturing to the smoking wires and burnt equipment lying in front of the gate.

"Well, the charge must have been too much for the gate capacitors to handle. It exploded."

"Just like I said," Zalenka muttered under his breath, earning a vicious glare from Rodney

Teyla turned to the group gathered around her, "Do you have another idea Dr. Zalenka?"

"Perhaps if we allowed the excess charge to establish a wormhole to an uninhabited planet we could draw some of the energy through the gate, away from Atlantis. It may allow us more control over the fluctuation, give us time to study it and solve the time differential."

Snapping his fingers Rodney continued his thought, "Yes. If we predetermine the address that will be dialled, we can create a grounding station like the ones here." John could do nothing but watch as the two men continued to throw ideas back and forth as they took the stairs two at time and headed out of the control room.

"I guess we leave them too it then," Lorne grumbled, looking at the mess in front of him. Turning to John he went on, "I have team clean all this up and deliver it to their labs." Again John watched as Lorne contacted the remaining members of his team and went to gather the shattered metal.

Around him the control room was still silent, waiting for their orders. Trying to hide the despair and defeat in his voice John turned to them, "OK everyone back to work."


	9. Chapter 9

Elizabeth had given up shouting after a just a few minutes. The cell next to hers was quiet leaving her to assume Harris had been taken along with Shann. She couldn't help but wonder what they were being taken to, what nightmare lay in store for them. Not content to just sit and wait any longer Elizabeth followed Shann's example and pushed her arm through the bars, trying to find the switches Shann had felt, disappointed but unsurprised when she found them as unmovable as the lieutenant had. Pulling her arm back Elizabeth began a systematic search of the cell, running her hands over the smooth walls and floors, searching for any imperfection on the cool, damp surface. After hours of searching, Elizabeth slumped down in the corner feeling defeated. There was nothing, not even a scratch, just bone numbing cold emanating off of every surface, chilling her skin where she touched it. Curling in on herself Elizabeth shut her eyes and tried to think of Atlantis, her mind conjuring up images of John, the way his smile reached his eyes and how safe she felt when he held her. For now, she would have to be content in her certainty that he and Rodney would be doing something to fix this.

Hours had passed when the lights flicked on again, startling Elizabeth from her daze, her eyes squinting closed while she got used to the light. Jumping to her feet and moving towards the bars, Elizabeth watched as the creatures moved down the halls, the clicking coupled with heavy, harsh whispering. Between them a body was being dragged, the limp form hanging between the creatures with their head bowed causing a shiver to run along her spine. He wasn't someone Harris had mentioned earlier. Opposite her the bars on a cell dissolved and the body was dropped to the floor with muted thuds, the form remaining still as the creatures retreated allowing the bars to reform, sealing him in.

Having been so focused on the arrival of another member of the expedition, Elizabeth didn't realise she couldn't move until the bars dissolved under her hands, the face of one of the creatures only inches from her own. The white eyes were watching her with a curiosity that made her shiver, made her feel that all it wanted to do was peel her skin from her bones just to see what was underneath. The sharp teeth stretched its mouth into a grin when her face reflected her thoughts, enjoying the terror it caused. She watched as it stepped back allowing two of its company to pass, Shann hanging heavily between them, drops of blood leaving a trail on the floor which were quickly smeared by her socks as they dragged her. They released their hold on her arms simultaneously, letting her drop to the floor before retreating, letting the first creature back in. Elizabeth could do nothing as it stalked its way over to Shann and rolled her onto her back before scraping its sharpened nail down her cheek leaving a thin line of blood. Looking back at Elizabeth it made sure she was watching, the featureless face holding her gaze for a moment before it turned back to Shann. The nail continued its journey down her face and neck until it reached her shoulder where it stopped and began to press down, puncturing the fabric of her shirt and then her skin, sliding through the muscle, finally breaking through the skin on the back of her shoulder, tearing another hole in her top. Still the creature pressed down, its elongated finger disappearing until the first two joints vanished and its knuckles was pressed against her skin, the finger curling against the back of her shoulder. Pulling its hand back, it stood and turned to Elizabeth again reaching up to its own shoulder and pointing with its blood smeared finger. Realisation dawned on her as she remembered the shot Jennifer had fired when they had been in the 'gate room. Sweat broke out on her forehead at its meaning, clearly this species inflicted on its victims what had been inflicted on them. It grinned again, seeming to know what Elizabeth had concluded before it retreated from the cell and the bars reformed.

Her knees hit the floor as her muscles were released. Sudden shivers racked her body at what she had witnessed, her hand trembling and she reached out for the lieutenant. Pressing her fingers against her pulse point Elizabeth held her breath as she waited, releasing it when she felt the gentle thrumming of her heart under her fingers. Quickly crawling closer she pulled her shirt away from her shoulder looking at the puncture. Blood welled up, running freely down her skin and pooling a little on the floor. Sliding one hand under her shoulder and pressing down as much she could, Elizabeth applied as much pressure as possible on each side of the wound, struggling with feeling of blood running between her fingers, her own heart pounding painfully in her chest.

When, finally, the bleeding stopped Elizabeth rocked back onto her heels and looked at the young woman lying in front of her, seeing for the first time the blood staining other patches on her shirt. Again she reached out and began examining the lieutenant, this time pulling the blood stained top up her chest, leaving Shann's abdomen exposed to cold, damp air. Running below her ribs, Elizabeth was shocked but not surprised to see an incision that had been crudely closed, the same thread she had seen on Bonadan woven through her skin. "What have they done to you?" she couldn't help but ask, knowing there would be no answer. Fortunately, the bleeding had eased, leaving only a bloody patch on the front of the lieutenants' shirt and dark red smears on the floor. Gently Elizabeth pulled the young woman towards the back of their cell, a weak attempt to keep her as far away from the creatures as possible.

For a moment Elizabeth debated sitting down next to the lieutenant, do nothing but trying to keep her warm and prevent any further bleeding but Jennifer wasn't the only member of the expedition here. Again Elizabeth gripped the bars, the cold metal almost burning her hands as she tried to see through the dark and into the cell opposite. Shouting came to no avail. Whoever it was hadn't woken yet and she didn't think anyone was in the cell next to them anymore. The though made her heart sink; how many more people would die before this was over?


	10. Chapter 10

Elizabeth's office was just as she had left it, to John it felt like she'd stepped out for a moment and would be back any second. If only that were true. He couldn't bring himself to sit in her chair so instead he took up his usually seat in front of her desk pulling the reports that were beginning to pile up towards him. The top papers where in Elizabeth's neat handwriting, the notes she made from the journal translation that she had sent down to Rodney's lab. Someone must have brought them back. Suddenly standing, John went to the corner of her office where the journals the language teams had returned were. If one of them held information that had been useful, then surely the others would to. With Elizabeth's notes maybe they can find something, anything that could help them translate the others. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before, it seemed so obvious now. Rounding her desk, John reached out to move the chair out of the way and bending down to look under her desk, knowing that's way she'd put the journals, surprised to find them missing. Standing back up he crossed the catwalk and heading over to Chuck.

"Did you see anyone take the journals from Dr. Weir's office?"

It took Chuck a moment to respond, his mind thinking back to all the people that had come and gone in the past few days. "Yeah, now you mention it. One of the linguists. Said he was going to have another crack at translating the older stuff."

"Great, do you know which linguist?"

"Tall guy, curly hair, young." he reeled off. "He had a New Zealand patch on his uniform," he said suddenly. Chuck could only watch Colonel Sheppard's face as it slowly dropped.

"As in Zeke Marshall, born in Wellington, New Zealand?"

Chuck frowned as he answered, "yeah. Him."

The language department wasn't somewhere John had visited very often, or at all, if he was honest with himself. While he respects the work they did in translating the Ancient database and was always thrilled to see Elizabeth's eyes light up when she found something especially interesting as she translated it, to him it held very little interest. Sweeping his hand over the sensor, he wasn't surprised to be faced with piles of old, dusty books and stacks of papers heaped next to computer terminals when the door opened. There were only a few other people in the large lab and none of them seemed to notice as John entered, all of them seemingly enthralled in the work they were doing although he was sure one of them was crying. Quickly scanning the mountains of books he looked for the ones that were brought back from Gishcar, spotting them neatly stacked besides an inactive terminal. Weaving his way over John quietly sat down in the abandoned chair. Unlike Elizabeth it appeared Dr. Marshall wasn't entirely fond of pen and paper, the pad only having minimal notes scribbled down. Sighing, John began tapping keys on the computer before him, grateful when the screen blinked to life bringing up the last page Zeke had been on. Scanning the document, he confirmed it was the translations he was looking for before sending it to his personal account. John debated taking the journals back to Elizabeth's office, the thought of putting them back where they belonged tugging at his heart strings. Eventually he decided against it, quickly standing and slipping back out of the lab before anyone noticed him.

The doors had just hissed closed behind him when the alarms began baring for a moment before being quickly silenced. Tapping his earpiece, John contacted the control room, relieved to hear Teyla's calm voice.

"Colonel Sheppard, we have just had another fluctuation. It would appear three of our missing personnel have been returned to the City." The words made John's heart stop. Please God, no. "Colonel Sheppard? Are you still there?" Teyla prompted when he didn't reply.

"Who?" Was all he managed to say, his voice coming out in a brittle croak. So much for hiding his feelings.

"Caleb Harris, Oliver McNeil and Captain Buren."

"Thank you Teyla." Breaking the connection John leant against the wall, his legs trembling under him, his heart pounding in his ears. Breathing out, he reassured himself that there was still time to save Elizabeth. Pushing off of the wall he headed in the opposite direction of the control room. Another fluctuation could mean Rodney had found something.

* * *

 

John could hear Rodney and Zalenka half way down the corridor form their lab, not arguing exactly, just discussing, loudly. "What if we programmed a small portable transmitter to emit this frequency?" came Zalenkas heavily accented voice. When he stepped through the doors, John was surprised to see a miniaturised version of the grounding rod, the tall metal spike covered in the same conductive metal Rodney had had wound around the gate. Internally he shivered, the sight of the grounding rod bringing back memories of the massive storm that had threatened Atlantis over a year ago and all that had come with it. Shaking away the memories of freezing rain, Genii soldiers and Koylas' mocking voice in his ear, John tore his eyes away from the grounding rod and the team of scientists buzzing around it, back to McKay and Zalenka, watching as they bickered.

"That may work but I could just cause the wearer to speed up indefinitely. We have no idea how to negate the effects once we no longer need them."

"Perhaps if we invert the frequency it will reverse the effects."

"Oh yes, because it's going to be that simple."

"Well what do you suggest then?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well maybe you should think of something, the capacitors are built, so is the grounding rod. Once we take them to the destination planet it is only a matter of time before the next fluctuation occurs." Turning away, Radek returned to the team gathered around the tall metal cylinder in the centre of the lab, muttering in Czech under his breath.

Seeing the end of the back and forth between the two of them John jumped in, "you just missed the fluctuation."

"What? That's impossible, it's only half ten," Rodney grumbled indignantly looking down at the computer in front of him, reading through the data displayed there.

"Tell that to whoever is doing this." John paused before adding, "we got three personnel back."

Rodney's head snapped up, his face crumpled with worry and his voice strained. "Elizabeth?"

"No." John watched as Rodney's head bobbed before he looked back at the screen, reading the new data. After a minute of waiting John grew impatient. "Did you get anything new?" Again Rodney's head snapped back up, his face showing surprise.

"You're still here."

"Yes," John ground out.

Rodney looked down at the screen again briefly before looking as Sheppard, "For now there's nothing new. The computer software is running outcomes for the portable transmitter reversals. We do however need to pick a planet for the grounding rod to be sent to."

"Okay, let me know when you have it." Turing away John's mind went to the reports he'd emailed to himself. Again the spark of hope bloomed in his chest, small and fragile, but flickering with life.


	11. Chapter 11

After so many hours of silence the quiet moan from the back of the cell made Elizabeth jump. Spinning round from where she'd been crouched by the bars keeping watch her eyes instantly locked onto the lieutenant's still form. For a moment she was quiet again before letting out something closer to a whine than a moan, her fingers curling into a fist by her side, her chest rising and falling with sharp, uneven breaths. Quickly moving over to her, Elizabeth crouched by her side and took hold of her hand, feeling as Jennifer's fingers unclenched before gripping around her palm. Unwilling to break the silence Elizabeth waited, part of her unsure that Shann was even waking up, almost certain she was just feeling pain in her sleep but the grip she had on her hand told her otherwise. With her free hand Elizabeth reached out and brushed the stray strands of hair away from the lieutenants face, feeling for the first time the burning temperature of her skin, her heart sinking at its implication. The thought of losing another member of the expedition was unbearable.

Feeling Elizabeth's cold hand against her face jolted Shann's mind completely awake, her eyes blinking open, the dull light from the ceiling reminding her of where she was. Her first instinct was to sit up, her abdominal muscles tensing sending a knife of pain through her stomach. She couldn't help but scream, her knees pulling up to her chest as she rolled on to her side, her hand pulling free of Elizabeth's as her arms wrapped round her shins.

Startled by the sudden noise and movement, Elizabeth lost her balance ending up sat on the floor in an ungainly heap. In front of her she could hear the lieutenant's heavy gasps for breath. Kneeling forward again, Elizabeth took hold of Shann's shoulder, careful of the puncture wound, and eased her onto her back. "Easy, easy," she soothed, the words coming more on instinct than conscious thought. She could do nothing as she watched the young woman's chest quickly rise and fall, her panic stricken blue eyes flickering around the cell, before finally settling on Elizabeth's green ones. "Slow your breathing lieutenant," Elizabeth ordered, watching as Shann gulped in a few more breaths before consciously fighting to slow them.

"What happened?" Shann gasped out the moment she could, her voice so little and so quiet compared with the scream she had just let out.

"Don't worry about that now," Elizabeth murmured, her eyes drawn to the darkening stain on Shann's shirt. "I need to look at your shoulder," Elizabeth said, looking the lieutenant in the eye. Waiting for her to nod, Elizabeth gently pulled her shirt away from her shoulder, dreading what she would see before sliding it down her arm slightly. The small wound was oozing blood, both front and back, just enough to worry her, leaving her feeling irrationally guilty at being unable to help her. Pulling the shirt back into place, Elizabeth frowned, looking at Shann again. Her eyes were open and focused now, her head raised slightly watching Elizabeth's blood stained fingers. "It's not too bad," Elizabeth added, watching as Shann's eyes closed again, her head falling back to the floor with a quiet thump.

"I don't remember them doing that," she said, her face creasing with a frown.

Elizabeth didn't know how to explain, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words. "You got that when they brought you back." Her voice was strained, her mind replaying what has happened in her head. "I think it was a demonstration." When Jen didn't respond Elizabeth let it drop, grateful that she didn't press her for more answers.

For a moment they were both still before Shann blinked opened her eyes again. "Help me sit up."

Elizabeth frowned, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"Probably not," she said, even as she pressed her palms against the floor and began levering herself up a little, biting her lips in pain. Instantly sliding her hands under shoulders, Elizabeth helped her, taking most of her weight and easing her back against the cool stone wall. By the time she let go Jen's face was pale and sweaty, her breath catching in her throat again. Sitting back on her heels, Elizabeth watched her look around the cell, reorientation herself to their surroundings wincing when her gaze caught on the bloody pool where she'd been lying.

Turning away, Elizabeth looked back over to the cell opposite. When the creatures had left their latest victim in there they'd kindly left the light in his cell on. After hours of watching for any sign of movement from him, Elizabeth had finally worked out who it was, surprised she hadn't recognised Dr. Marshall on sight. She tried shouting over to him time and time again, checking the doors at the bottom of the hall every time she did, overly aware of what was lurking on the other side. After watching for a minute and receiving no response from him, Elizabeth turned back to Jen, unsurprised to see her examining the wound on her stomach. "What did they do to you?" she couldn't help but ask again.

For a moment, Jen continued to poke and prod at the deep slice in her skin, her short nails catching under the thread as she pulled it slightly, wincing in response. Finally, she pulled her shirt back down and looked at Elizabeth, her head resting against the wall again.

"I'm sorry to report ma'am but Harris, McNeil and Burren are dead." Elizabeth bowed her head at the news, she'd suspected as much but hearing confirmed tore at her soul, guilt creeping in at the edges of her mind. They had been under her command; It was her who had ultimately approved them for Atlantis. Approved them to come to their death, her mind jeered. Trying to push the thought away Elizabeth turned back to the one member of her expedition she could help, aware that she had avoided her question. Jennifer met her stare with one of her own before heavily exhaling.

"I think they took out my liver and maybe a kidney," she said hesitantly, watching as Elizabeth blinked at her words. "I'm not sure. I'm guessing they put them back." She paused for a moment, gathering her scattered thoughts. "They injected me with something. Made my head fuzzy but I could feel everything they did." Again she paused, her eyes falling shut, the effort to keep them open too much. Elizabeth was almost certain she'd fallen asleep again, so much so that she went back over to her, crouching by her side. Her eyes rolled open again, focusing on Elizabeth. "I think they liked it that way."

Elizabeth nodded, frowning as she did, thinking about the pain everyone must have gone through. "I have to agree. I believe they are doing to us what was done to them."

"An eye for an eye. How very biblical of them." Jen muttered, her dark humour breaking the tension slightly. "We didn't do this to them though."

"No, the Ancients did." Zeke's voice made Elizabeth jump. Quickly she spun around and went to the bars, looking over at him stood opposite her. To her he looked defeated, his shoulders slumped and black rings under his eyes, his arms hanging limply by his sides. "The Ancients did this."


	12. Chapter 12

Dr. Marshall's notes were meticulous, so much so it began to freak John out a little. He couldn't find a punctuation error or a spelling mistake anywhere. In the few days that the linguist had had the journals he'd managed to translate three of the of the seven that he'd taken. However, the impeccable notes made it easier for John to read through, the first two describing little more than the building of the lab they'd discovered. Part of John wanted to give up on the journals as a lost hope, the thought of reading another only making the defeat in his heart grow. Despite that, he opened the final file. Looking at the date of the journal entry John paused, clicking back to the previous file and noting the roughly three-year jump. Apparently Dr. Marshal had been just as bored as John.

Picking up the mug beside him, he took a mouthful of lukewarm coffee and began reading. Quickly skimming through the data that seemed irrelevant, John was more than half way through the document when he stopped and reread the last line. His mind jolted at what he was reading. Skipping back a few pages he found the beginning of the entry. The word 'aperture' began to appear with increasing frequency but it was when then word 'sample' appeared that John paid closer attention to what he was reading.

After another hour, he finally felt he understood why this was happening and maybe a little closer to stopping it, to saving Elizabeth. The experiments described made John's skin crawl, the details vivid and familiar. Skipping back a few pages John reread the references to an image, with the frustrating text of, 'image to be scanned in.'

Grumbling about a half finished job he climbed to his feet and headed back down to the translation teams' lab, cursing himself for not bringing the journals back when he'd had the chance. Again he was faced by walls of dusty books and unoccupied computer terminals only this time the occupants of the room noticed him when he entered, all looking up with varying degrees of interest. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny he wove his way back across the room to Marshall's computer, quickly rifling through the books there, checking again when he didn't find it and again after that just to be sure he hadn't missed it, slumping down in the chair in defeat when it didn't magically appear. For a minute he sat there, glaring at the books surrounding him, casting glances around the room at the quiet linguists.

"Does anyone know where the books Dr. Marshall was working on have gone," he finally asked. Again everyone looked at him.

After a minute of waiting, John was about to give up hope of an answer when one of the linguists got up and handed him a small stack of books. "We tried to translate them," the young woman murmured. "We didn't get anywhere though."

Taking the books with a relieved smile, John thanked her, flicking through the covers for the one he was looking for, setting the others aside when he found it. Standing and crossing the room, he was at the door before he turned, "check Marshall's terminal. Maybe his notes will help."

John was halfway back to the control room when he found the image, his blood turning cold at the sight of it. The thought of Elizabeth being in its grip made him feel physically sick, his need to find her, to get her back, growing in his chest until he thought he might burst. As the corridors opened up into the 'gate room, John was surprised to find Rodney and Zalenka stood in front of the Stargate, the new ground rod lying there.

Rodney turned as he entered, his hand pressed against his earpiece. "Ahh. There you are. I've been trying to reach you." He paused looking from the vacant expression on Sheppard's face to the book in his hands. "What's that?"

Finally snapping his mind back to the present, he looked at Rodney, opening the book at the page he'd been on. "Look at this." Handing the book over, he watched as Rodney's face turned form interest to disgust.

"Is this what's been chasing everyone around the city?"

"Think it might be. What's going on here?" He asked quickly, gesturing to the equipment piled around the room.

"That's what I was trying to contact you about. We have picked a destination planet for the grounding rod. Now all we need to do is travel there and set it up."

John smiled properly for the first time since Elizabeth had disappeared. "Great. Where?"

Rodney frowned, glancing over at Zalenka. "Gishcar."

"No," was John's instant reply.

"Hear me out," Rodney yelped indignantly. "Gishcar is abandoned, there's no one there to be effected by our experiments, we know there are no Wraith there and we have recent terrain scans from our last trip."

"That's where all this started though," John growled in reply.

"How do you know that?"

John paused for a moment, thinking. "Conference room, thirty minutes," he said before turning away and up the stairs, contacting everyone he felt needed to be in attendance.

Within the half hour window, the conference room was full to bursting, everyone turned to face him. "Alright," John began, "McKay and Zalenka have a plan. We may also have an idea what we are facing." Turing to the screen behind him, John changed the image from the biosensor to the picture he'd scanned in. Around the room there was a collective gasp as people took the image in. The black and white sketch showing a tall figure, it's grotesquely elongated arms and legs extended out from its body, similar to Da Vinci's Vitruvian man. Detailed sketches showed close up anatomical drawings of its hands, feet and head. The sharp, curved nails measured in a unit John didn't recognise, its needle thin teeth measured the same.

"What is that thing?" Lorne asked.

"I have no idea," John replied, "Rodney set the database to search for a matching image but so far it hasn't kicked anything back."

"The skin colour matches with the blood we've found. So does its anatomy," Carson commented, all eyes turning to him and Dr. Resh. "If you look, there are no internal organs, no way to consume energy through food. It makes sense that this 'thing' would be capable of producing its own energy."

"Which is what Dr. Bonadon thought," Resh added. "It makes sense."

John exhaled, not looking forward to the rest of the explanation he'd discovered. "It's what the Ancient's thought." Again everyone looked back at him, faces expectant. "It would appear that the Ancient's discovered what they called an aperture-"

"Like a fluctuation?" Rodney interrupted, earning a glare form Sheppard.

"Yes Rodney, that's what I was saying. Anyway," he continued, his frustration beginning to grow, "the Ancient's brought one of these things through and experimented on it."

"That sounds very un-Ancienty," Rodney grumbled, earning a chorus of agreements.

"I'm not convinced it was entirely an on the books experiment," John added, "I mean think about it. The lab with in the middle of nowhere, miles from the gate."

"I have to agree with Colonel Sheppard," Teyla added, "from what we know of the Ancestors they have always seemed a peaceful race."

"Maybe it was a rogue faction, we've seen that in other species before," One of the scientists commented, earning another round of agreements.

"Either way, it seems that when this species," John continued, waving his hand at the image on the screen, "found out what this Ancient scientist was doing they got angry and put a stop to it."

"So, what?" Lorne asked, "these creatures have held a grudge for ten millennia and now they're taking their anger out on us?"

"They took it out on Gishcar first," Ronon grumbled. Rodney looked over at him, his face crumpled in confusion. "There was an empty container," he added simply, his lips curving into a half smile as Rodney began snapping his fingers.

"Someone on Gishcar must have found the lab and opened the container. These creatures must have detected the frequency it gave off and thinking they'd found the original instigators began taking it out on the people of Gishcar," he finished, slumping back into his chair.

"And when Dr. Bonadon found the lab here, and the sample. He opens it and it all begins again," Radek added.

Nodding, Rodney agreed, "exactly."

"How do we stop it?" John asked. "We can't let this go on until everyone is dead, obviously."

"Well, obviously," Rodney sneered, "There may be a way to block the fluctuation, much like we did with the personal transmitters."

"Personal transmitters?" Teyla asked.

"Ahh, right, yes, we've worked out how to speed up our personnel before they pass through the fluctuation, so that they should be moving at the same speed as people who have disappeared."

"I thought you didn't know how to stop people moving at that speed Rodney?"

"Yes, well. It turns out it is as simple as inverting the frequency," Rodney stuttered, beside him Zalenka's face cracked into a smug grin. "The same principle may work with the fluctuation, since it works at the same frequency. Once the military has brought our people back, it should be as simple as having the shield emit the same frequency to block any more attempts at opening a fluctuation."

"Great, let's get moving then. Lorne, you and your team, head to Gishcar with Zalenka, help him get the equipment set up, McKay, I need you to programme the shield and make enough of these transmitters for my team and our three missing people. Ronon, Teyla, be ready to move out when the fluctuation has stabilised. Dr. Beckett, we don't know what condition the people we bring back are going to be in, we may need a medical team on standby." Briefly looking at the faces gather, he nodded, watching as they all did the same in return. "Dismissed."

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The violence warning for this fic is mostly aimed at this chapter. Just a heads up.

Elizabeth sat at the back of her cell, Shann next to her. Her mind was reeling from what Dr. Marshal had told her. Everything she thought she knew about the Ancient's had always told her that they valued non-interference in other races, not that they freely abducted and experimented on them.

She looked across at Dr. Marshall again, seeing him watching her. "Are you sure your translation was right?" she asked again, a hint of desperation in her voice, despite the fact he'd already answered the same question before.

"I'm sure," he replied not without a note of frustration.

"Did you get the chance to tell Colonel Sheppard?" If John knew then at least he had an idea of what he was up against.

Opposite her, Marshall shook his head, "no." Leaning her head back against the wall, Elizabeth closed her eyes in an attempt to get some distance from the situation, to take her mind away from the chilly cell, from the fact that John most likely had no idea what he was facing and from the fact the lieutenant next to her was going to die. The last one hurt more than she had anticipated; Yes, she'd always felt a certain amount of loss at every death in the expedition and had definitely felt guilt, but Shann's sudden downward spiral had hit her harder than she'd expected, the young woman's bright and lively spirit getting under the shell she'd built around herself.

Again Elizabeth placed her palm on Jen's forehead, her skin impossibly hot despite the damp air around them, quickly pulling her hand back when Shann weakly reached up to swat her away grumbling, "I'm fine." Elizabeth wished it was true. The entire left side of her shirt was now sticky with blood, the wound in her shoulder still bleeding. She was certain the puncture itself was infected, the last time she'd looked it had been bright red, the veins around it standing out against her pale skin. Her fever was climbing too, and with it her energy was sinking. The strength to hold her head up seeming to be more than she could manage, the sudden and violent shivers that racked her body her only movements. In her heart she knew Shann would be lucky to survive another day in the cell, even luckier if she survived a second trip with the creatures.

Looking across to Marshall she saw him watching them again, his eyes focused on the woman next her, his face questioning. Subtly shaking her head at him, she watched as he slumped down and looked away, his back pressed against the bars. Death was never easy to watch.

It was hours later when Elizabeth heard the whispers start again, heard the quiet clicking on nails on the floor. Slowly getting to her feet, Elizabeth looked down the corridor, her cheeks pressed against the bars. For a moment she saw nothing before they swept into view. Instantly she stepped back, fear propelling her as far away from the bars as possible. When a hand touched her back she jumped, almost screamed, her head spinning round to see Jen stood beside her, her face flushed and eyes glassy, but holding a determination that she was surprised she could muster. Elizabeth watched as she took a few wobbly steps forward, placing herself between Elizabeth and the creatures, before once again lifting her arms into a defensive stance. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the first time this had happened; Only now, Jen looked far less threatening and Elizabeth was sure she'd be hauled out of the cell along with her.

Again the bars dissolved. At the same moment her muscles froze, holding her in place. The creatures' appearance didn't startle her as much as they had previously, her mind immune to the terror they tried to inflict. She could do nothing but watch as two of them grabbed Shann by the arms. Her struggles were lessened compared to the first time but still she pulled against their grip, fighting to get free, screaming in pain and fear. When two creatures side stepped Shann and approached Elizabeth her heart stuttered, the terror she'd thought she'd suppressed launching itself to the forefront of her mind. As the clawed hands gripped her arms she began to shiver, her instinct to fight building. The moment her muscles were released; Elizabeth began to pull back against the tight grip around her arms. With a sudden jerking motion, they dragged her forward, her body propelled ahead of them for a moment. Stunned by the sudden motion Elizabeth stopped her struggling, willing just to follow along; fighting was getting her nowhere.

Seemingly surprised at her willingness the creatures slowed their steps, their grip on her arms loosening fractionally. The whispering in her ears lessened too, the noises not as sharp, almost soft. Ahead of her Shann was still fighting, though her struggles were weakening, the exertion, pain and fever catching up on her. A thought struck her, "Lieutenant stop fighting," Elizabeth called out, watching as she turned her head to look at her, confusion and fear etched on her features along with the exhaustion. "Trust me," she added, seeing the doubt in Shann's eyes. For a moment Elizabeth thought she was going to ignore her before she nodded, her muscles relaxing in the creature's grip.

Pulling her eyes away from Shann Elizabeth realised they'd stopped moving, the creature's white eyes focused entirely on her. Trying to quell the panic she felt building Elizabeth kept her voice as level and calm as she could. "Why are you doing this to us?" In response the whisperings volume increased, getting so loud she tried to raise her hands to cover her ears. The grip around her shoulders tightened and she was pulled forward again. In front of her Elizabeth watched as Shann was pulled through door, disappearing from view. A second later she was by her side again.

The room they walked her into sent a chill down her spine. It was brighter than the cell she'd been in, so bright she could see every corner of the room. Lined up along the centre were several beds, not unlike the beds in the infirmary back on Atlantis, only less soft. There were more of the creatures here too, gathered in the far corner, whispering among themselves. The two creatures holding her began moving again, dragging her along with them, guiding her to one of the beds. Beside her the same thing was happening to Shann and from where she was Elizabeth could see the lieutenant shivering, her eyes wide and flooded with fear. The grip on her arms tightened again, lifting her off the ground and placing her on the table, forcing her to lie on her back. Again she asked, "why?" Not expecting an answer, the fear building in her chest making her question sound more like a plea.

"You did this to us." The noise was painful, the words stretched and sharp, but still whispered. Twisting her head to try and see who had spoken, Elizabeth watched as one of the creatures approached, a long tube in its hand.

The creature was watching her closely, waiting for her to reply. "No. The Ancients did this to you. Not us."

"We are all that is left after what you did to us," it growled, more menace in its voice than she'd heard before.

"How is that possible? The Ancients have been gone for millennia."

"We are infinite. Your kind wanted to know how."

"No, we've only been in this galaxy a year. Until a week ago we'd never even seen your species," Elizabeth shouted, her voice rising in frustration. It watched her for a moment more before it turned to Shann. She'd been strapped down, her shirt pulled up to her ribs, her skins stained with blood, the incision they'd made previously exposed to cool air. The creature pressed the tube to the soft skin of Jen's forearm. Her reaction was immediate. The scream she let out made Elizabeth flinch, the raw pain in it making her shiver all the more. She watched as the lieutenant stopped moving, her gaze fixed on a point above her, the only movement her chest rising and falling with each breath.

With its back still turned to her it carried on. "See what you did to us." Signalling to the others stood in the room, two came and lifted her back to the ground and moved her to stand by Shann's feet, their grip on her arms painful. Elizabeth could do nothing but watch as it picked up one of the curved knives from the tray next to the lieutenant. With practiced ease the knife was pressed into Shann's arm, smoothly sliding through the layers of skin and muscle from elbow to wrist. Instantly the lieutenant's breathing picked up, her chest rapidly rising and failing, and from where she was stood, Elizabeth could see tears begin to leak from the corners of Shann's eyes.

"Stop!" Elizabeth's voice was louder than she'd expected, rising into a scream as she lunged forward, the hands wrapped around her arms squeezing so tightly she knew there'd be bruises. For a moment it did stop, carefully lifting the knife from Jen's blood streaked skin. The white eyes watched her, waiting for her to say something more. Its gaze paralyzed her mind, the stare breaking into her mind and breaking down every defence she had. After a moment it grinned, a hiss escaping from between its teeth before it returned to its work hissing again in satisfaction when Elizabeth pleaded with it to stop. Her voice was quieter when she spoke next, her begging "please" coming out in nothing more than whisper, the word blurring together as she pleaded over and over again. The creature ignored her, resolute in giving its lesson.

"First you opened our limbs," it hissed, now pulling thread through the cut tissue, delicately knotting it and pulling the incision open, exposing the bloodied bones below. "Then you examined our bones," it went on, pressing metal instruments to Shann's bones. She was unable to do anything but watch and plead as it continued slowly inflicting the damage she'd seen done to the members of the expedition, all the while it narrated its actions, the harsh words biting at her ears. Elizabeth felt tears build in her eyes, felt them streaking down her cheeks and drip from her chin, her only hope with John back on Atlantis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the reason Jen Shann was written into this. As heartless as I am, I didn't have the heart to torture Elizabeth, hence Jen Shann was born. Apologies.


	14. Chapter 14

John stood at the foot of the stairs, the blue of the wormhole casting light shadows around the room. Behind him the control was unusually full for the late hour. Impatience was building in his muscles, the need to go and get Elizabeth back building in him to the point it almost hurt. Rodney was stood at the ops station, chattering away to Zalenka on the radios while tapping keys on the console. John could only hope he was setting up the shield for when they got back, somehow he felt they were going to have to make a hasty exit back to the city. As the gate shut down, Teyla and Ronon came in, both kitted up and ready to go. Turning as Rodney came down the stairs he asked, "How're we doing McKay?"

"Everything's set," he said, zipping up his vest and rummaging in his pockets at the same time. Pulling out three personal transmitters he passed them around. No bigger than the palm of his hand, John turned it over, hovering his finger over the button there.

"What's this do?" Ronon asked, pre-empting John's own question.

"It turns it on and off," Rodney sneered, to him, he felt he was stating the obvious.

John clipped it to his vest, just below his radio before pressing the button to activate it. The effect was instant. Everyone around him stilled and silenced, Rodney's mouth open, about to form a word. Taking a step, John was surprised that he felt like he was moving normally, each step he took was no faster than normal, no longer than normal. It felt like it was everyone else that had stopped. Had it been like for Elizabeth the night she went missing, he couldn't help but wonder. Standing behind McKay he turned the transmitter off again, finally hearing Rodney get his words out, "Don't turn it on yet." The words tumbled out of his mouth, slowly quietening as his face crumpled into confusion. He looked over to Ronon and Teyla "Where'd he go?"

"I'm right here McKay." Instantly Rodney spun around, his mouth formed into an 'oh'. "How many more of these have you got?"

"A few. Why?"

"We're going to need three to bring back Dr. Weir and the other two missing personnel."

"Right," Rodney muttered before going over to one of the storage boxes the tech teams had brought up with them. Turing back to the 'gate, John first checked his P90, making sure everything was in working order before checking his watch. Only a minute to go. Rodney reappeared at his side pushing the spare transmitters into his pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, John watched Carson lead a medical team in, propping three stretchers against the wall. The thought that they might need them made his blood run cold, the impatience turning to nervousness.

As before, the control room grew quiet, only this time more hopeful. Beside him, Rodney's tablet bleeped. Quickly he silenced the alarm and nodded at Sheppard. Stepping back away from the gate, John watched as the wormhole engaged, the surge rolling back and making the blue puddle shimmer slightly before it settled. However, it was what John didn't see that worried him. There was no sight of a 'fluctuation,' whatever one might look like.

"Did it work?"

Rodney looked equally puzzled, "yes."

"Well, where is it?" John could hear the tension in his own voice.

For a moment the 'gate room was quiet, everyone looking around for something, although what they weren't sure. "I believe I have found it," Teyla shouted from behind the Stargate. Rounding the 'gate, John had to grab Rodney before he fell into the black hole in the floor. The sight of it shocked John. He'd been expecting something more interesting, not just a flat black hole in the floor.

"Is it stable?"

Again Rodney poked at his tablet before contacting Zalenka. Finally, both men agreed that it had worked. Relief flooded through John. Looking around him, he nodded to Ronon and Teyla, watching as they activated the transmitters, beside him Rodney doing the same, all three of them vanishing from view. Looking up to ops he shouted, "the moment we get back, you activate the shield." After receiving a chorus of 'yes, Sir's' he activated his own transmitter.

Instantly Rodney, Ronon and Teyla reappeared. "How are we going to do this?" Teyla asked, looking at the fluctuation in front of her with a touch of nervousness.

"Easy," Ronon grinned before stepping over the fluctuation and falling through.

"Oh yes, real easy." Rodney's grumblings were to hide his fears John knew. Looking from Teyla to Rodney John followed Ronon's lead, stepping forward and feeling the floor disappear beneath his feet. The fall was shorter than he expected, only like jumping down a flight of stairs. His feet hit the floor with a heavy thud. Ronon was already stood waiting for him, instantly pulling him up to stand by his side. The cold began to eat through his uniform in a matter of moments, chilling his skin. It took a few minutes more before Teyla and McKay fell through and joined them, Teyla landing neatly on her feet while Rodney hit the floor and ended up on his side.

"What took you so long," John whispered.

"Rodney thought it may be wise to remain behind to monitor the fluctuation." John couldn't hide his slight grin at Teyla's words. "He took some convincing."

"Yes well, if something goes wrong we may be stuck here." Even whispering, John could hear the grumble in McKay's voice. Turing away from them, John looked around the room they were in. Or at least he tried too. Outside of the pool of light cast by the ceiling, the room was in total gloom. Flipping the light on his P90 on he took a few steps into the shadows, swing his weapon around in slow motions catching sight of stairs that led upwards into the fluctuation. At least he didn't have to worry about an exit. Finding an opening, he signalled the others to follow him.

They'd only taken a few steps when Rodney's voice made him stop. "Wait, we can turn the transmitters off."

"Why?" Ronon's voice was quiet, but John was sure he was thinking the same thing as him; If they turned the transmitters off, they'd be at a huge disadvantage.

"Time here moves at the same speed as the rest of the universe," Rodney explained, reaching up and clicking his transmitter off. Quickly John nodded at Ronon and Teyla, the three of them mirroring McKay's actions. Again they began moving.

Taking slow, measured steps John followed the corridor, keeping the beam of his torch low, illuminating only a small space in front of him. Behind him, he could hear the quiet footsteps of his team following him. When the corridor split he came to a halt, shining his light up both corridors. "Which way?" Teyla asked.

Turing to Rodney he looked at the life signs detector in his hand, waiting for his verdict. "There's only one life sign to the left. Way more down there," he pointed to the right hand corridor.

"Can you tell if they're human?" If they could, it would make their job so much easier.

"No," Rodney shook his head. Exhaling slowly, John though. Splitting up in enemy territory didn't seem like such a good option, not when the stakes where so high. Nor did charging into a room full of potential enemies. Going towards one life sign increased the odds of successfully rescuing one member of the expedition. However, it may not be the member John wanted to rescue most of all. The thought made him feel guilty. Everyone on the expedition was important, and equally deserving of rescue, not just Elizabeth.

Signalling with his hand, John guided them down the left hand corridor. The walls quickly fell away into a bigger space. Lifting his weapon John shone his light around the room, the beam flashing off metal bars on either side of them. A moment later someone shouted them. Jogging over, John came face to face with Zeke Marshall. The young man looked terrified. His deeply tanned skin was pale in the weak lighting and his eyes were flicking around the room, not focusing on anything for longer than second.

From behind him, Teyla's calm voice echoed in his ear. "He's in shock." Nodding in agreement, John reached through the bars, grabbing him by the arm. The physical contact seemed to jar him, his frantic eyes finally going still, locked on John.

"Dr. Marshall? Are you with us now?" John asked, doing his best to break the scientist out of the state he was in. Finally receiving a nod, John exhaled, turning to the rest of his team. Rodney was stood beside Ronon, both of them examining a control panel. Ronon had his hands pressed against the switches, almost growling as he tried to press them, the strength he was exerting doing nothing to change their position.

Rodney was watching him with mild distaste. "Clearly that's not working."

"I'd like to see you try." Ronon grunted, still fighting with the switches. Turning away, John began inspecting the rest of the room. None of the other cells were occupied, they didn't even have bars. Swinging his light around, he was about to turn back to the others when the beam reflected off of something on the floor. His heart sinking, he went over to it. Tapping the liquid with his fingers, he was unsurprised to find blood. Another light appeared over his shoulder, brightening the pool, showing its extent in startling detail, in some places he could see where it had run down the back wall and dripped to the floor. In other places it was smeared along the ground, the drops dry and flaky.

Looking up at Teyla he saw the concern in her face. "It's fresh," she commented.

"Yeah." He tried to keep his voice calm and level, but part of him knew he wasn't doing so well at it.

"It's Lt. Shann's blood," Zeke called, finally speaking. Immediately John stood and went over.

"Are you certain?" He couldn't help but ask, but he had to know, to be sure.

Zeke nodded, "she wasn't doing so well. They took her and Dr. Weir a little while ago."

"Took them where?"

"Down the corridor you came through, after that I don't know." Again his worries about splitting up came to the forefront of his mind, but leaving someone behind wasn't an option he was ever willing to consider.

Teyla seemed to agree with him. "Dr. McKay and I will remain here and work on freeing Dr. Marshall." Relief unfurled in his chest, silently he thanked Teyla and her calm, rational understanding.

"Ronon, you're with me." Plucking the life signs detector out of Rodney's pocket, John headed out of the cell block with Ronon behind him.

We're almost done folks. Thank you for sticking with me for so long.


	15. Chapter 15

Elizabeth's legs felt like jelly, her body trembling with exhaustion and horror. What she had seen was one of the most horrific things she'd ever experienced, and that included the times she negotiated in some of Earth's most war torn countries. The tight grip on her upper arms was all that was holding her up. In front of her, Shann lay on her back, thick lines of blood covering her arms and legs, the thread holding her skin apart removed, the wounds no longer pulled open, but not closed either. However, Elizabeth feared the damage was done. She'd lost more blood than she thought possible and still be alive, but somehow Shann was hanging on, too stubborn to give up. Her chest rising and falling slowly with each jagged breath she managed to take. The injuries Elizabeth had seen on the first few of the returned personnel had been recreated in Shann's skin, the demonstration all for her benefit, all to explain to her what it was the Ancient's had done to them.

"Why? She did nothing to you." Her voice was quiet, almost broken, tired of asking the same question time and again. The creature ignored her, wiping the blade of its knife on a cloth.

"Do you not remember this?" It hissed finally, pressing a clawed finger against its shoulder. Again it faced her, its white eyes boring holes into her. "Do you not remember the first time our kind met yours?"

"No. It wasn't us," Elizabeth sighed, her voice defeated. She wanted to scream it at the creature, to force it to understand but all her energy had gone, besides, the creature seemed not to care. It carried on watching her for a moment, before briefly looking at the two holding her. Within a moment she was lying back on the table she had been on before, her arms and legs strapped down. Elizabeth had no energy to fight them, the strength she'd had when they pulled her out of her cell had long since gone, along with any hope she'd managed to hold on too. Rolling her head to the side, she tried to see where the creature had gone, seeing nothing more than Lt. Shann.

She could nothing but watch the young woman. Her breathing had slowed down to the point Elizabeth was sure she'd stopped in between each breath. Her eyes were closed now, almost sunken into her face, her skin almost translucent. Elizabeth couldn't help the guilt that welled up in her chest. They'd chosen Shann as their demonstration because she'd shot one of them. The only reason she'd done that was because she'd been trying to protect her. "I'm so sorry Jen," she whispered, watching as her head rolled to face her, her eyes blinking open.

Weakly her mouth stretched into a smile, "It's been the best thing to serve on the experdition, ma'am."

Elizabeth took a deep breath, attempting to stop the sob that was building in her throat. "Don't talk like that. You're going to be fine." In her heart she knew it was a lie. All she received in answer was a slow nod.

Rolling her head around again, she spotted the other creature slowly approaching, a clean, curved knife in its grip. Elizabeth felt her heart rate pick up, pounding in her chest until she thought it might break her ribs. She watched as it grinned at her response, the needle sharp teeth pressing out at angles. Closing her eyes against the sight, she tried to take deep breaths, struggling to keep them even, acutely aware of her surroundings, of every clicking step it took. Opening her eyes again she saw the creature watching her closely, the tube it had used on Shann in its other hand. For a moment it narrowed its eyes before putting the tube down.

In sharp, rasping words it spoke again, "I want to hear you scream, as our kind did when you did this to them." Again she felt tears build in her eyes, slowly sliding down her cheeks. Coldness suddenly bit at her stomach as her shirt was pulled up. Focusing on a spot directly above her, Elizabeth braced herself for what was to come. The pain was instant. Sharp, slicing just below her ribs. The scream tore from her throat within a moment before she clamped down on it, unwilling to give her torture the satisfaction.

John sensed he was close, so close he could almost feel Elizabeth's presence. Her scream stopped both him and Ronon in his tracks. Sweat broke out along his spine, every muscle tensing in his body at the sound. He'd never heard her scream before, not in fear or in pain. Turing to Ronon, John could see the concern on his face. Glancing down at the life signs detector in his hand, he quickly counted the number of living beings on the screen, dismayed when he realised they were vastly outnumbered.

Looking ahead of him he compared the layout on the screen to what was in front of him. The room he was approaching could be no more than twenty feet he estimated. Crouching down, John turned the light on his weapon off, conscious of how close they now were. Behind him Ronon followed suit. With the lights off the shadows around them were complete, hiding them in darkness. Turning on the balls of his feet to face Ronon, he showed him the screen and together they began planning how they would attack.

"If I go in and go to the right, you take the left. With luck this will be a science lab. There shouldn't be any weapons." Receiving a grunt of agreement, John rose to his feet, levelling his weapon ahead of him but keeping the light off. The subtle glow of Ronon's pistol the only illumination in the corridor. They were about ten feet away when Rodney's voice chirped in his ear, loud enough to make him jump.

"Colonel Sheppard, we've got Dr. Marshall and are heading back to the entry room. It turns out that we needed to turn on our transmitters to be able to move those switches," he concluded with cheer.

Tapping his coms off again, John stepped back towards the wall, lowering his weapon. "That gives me an idea." Reaching up to his own transmitter he turned it on, watching as Ronon did the same.

"What's the plan?"

"Remember when we activated these back on Atlantis, Rodney couldn't see me. If it works the same here we could neutralise the enemy before they even know we're there. If it doesn't we just go with plan A." John saw as Ronon grinned, his teeth flashing in the dark before he moved over to the other side of the corridor. Together they moved forward, almost in synch until they reached the door.

Carefully John peered around, squinting at the amount of light. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Everything in the room was still, frozen mid movement. Quickly he took in the layout of the room. The line of beds along the centre were all unoccupied, all but two. Lt. Shann was lying on one, the other was surrounded by the creatures. Glancing across to Ronon, he quickly nodded, watching as the Satedan fired off the first shot, the bolt of energy burning through the air and impacting on its target, the bright flash stopping when it hit, time moving too slowly for the creature to fall. Following his lead John fired off several shots, confused when the bullets slowed in the air, moving like they'd been shot into water, apparently the bullets were slower than the energy from Ronon's gun. Across the room Ronon had lowered his weapon, looking at the bullets slow trajectory. For a moment John waited, watching as each bullet hit its target, black stains appearing on each creature. Nodding over to Ronon, John turned off his transmitter. The moment he did, the creatures dropped, some falling to the floor others onto each other.

* * *

 

Through the pain, Elizabeth was sure she could feel John, could almost feel his warmth in the cold room, could just about sense his presence at the back of her mind. The creature stood above her paused, examining its work, the bloodied knife raised up, finally away from her skin. Despite the cold she felt like she was burning and there was a distinctly uncomfortable warmth pooling along her stomach and running down her sides. The creature was watching her again, its white eyes intense as it looked at her. For a moment she thought it was going to carry on, could already see the blade lowering back down to her stomach. Tensing her muscles, she prepared for the next wave of pain, fearing what it was going to do to her.

The crack came out of nowhere, followed by another, and then another. Around her the creatures dropped to the floor, black blood splattering onto the surfaces around her. Elizabeth tried to lift her head to look around but found she couldn't, her energy all but gone. Suddenly there were hands on her ankles, pulling away the strapping and then again at her wrists.

"Elizabeth." John's face was the most welcome sight she had seen in days. Instantly she wrapped her arms around his neck, not caring who else might see. His hands were gentle and he lifted her slightly, stopping when she whimpered in pain.

* * *

 

The moment he could see Elizabeth strapped to the table he rushed over, forgetting everything else. As he began undoing the straps he saw her try to lift her head, his heart breaking when she couldn't. The moment she was free he stepped into her line of sight, green eyes full of relief at the sight of him. Despite her injuries she immediately wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly to the back of his neck and shirt, as though he was only one who was keeping her safe. He wanted so much to hug her back, to hold her and never let her go but the moment he did she moaned in pain.

Quickly easing her back down to the bed he looked at the wound that had been inflicted. Not that he could see much of it, there was too much blood. Wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible he began pulling bandages out of his pack, noticing as Ronon did the same for Lt. Shann.

Looking at Elizabeth again he could see the pain and fear reflected in her green eyes, her face streaked where the tears had run. "This is going to hurt a little." He waited until she had nodded before he lifted her into a sitting position, instantly wincing as she cried out, murmuring a constant "I know, I'm sorry," in to her hair as he held her against him and wound the bandages around her. By the time he'd finished pulling the bandages tight she was panting against him, her eyes closed against the pain. Again he wrapped his arms around her, just holding her while she got her breath back, his nose pressed against her hair.

Across from him, Ronon was trying his best to wrap Lt. Shann's injuries, eventually running out of bandages. Looking up he saw Sheppard watching him.

"We need to go." John nodded, looking towards the lieutenant. He wasn't even sure she was alive.

Against him he felt Elizabeth turn to look at the young woman and even from the back of her head he could see the guilt and worry on her face. "How is she?" she asked, her voice no louder than a whisper.

Ronon shook his head slightly, "she's alive, but not for long."

"Can you carry her?" John asked, even as he did Ronon was already sliding his arms under her knees and shoulders, more gently than John could have though possible, lifting her up from the bed, her body limp in his arms, her head tilted back at an uncomfortable angle. "Get going, I've got Elizabeth." Within moments Ronon was gone, his heavy footfalls disappearing down the hall.

Turing his attention back to Elizabeth he looked at her properly for the first time since he found her. Blood was streaking her hands and arms, dried onto her cold skin. Her eyes held an exhausted quality, haunted by something that he had no idea about. He wanted nothing more to hold her and never let her go but first he had to get her out of here. "Can you walk?" As much as he wanted to just scoop her up and get them out of there, being on his own put him at a tactical disadvantage and he didn't know if he'd need to use his weapon.

Finally, Elizabeth nodded at him, whispering "help me up." Slowly she shuffled forward, towards the edge of the bed, carefully lowering her legs down until her boots hit the floor with a light thud. Taking a moment to catch her breath she tried to stand, unhappy to find her legs uncooperative in the attempt, the hold she'd had on John's arm turning into a death grip as she began to fall. Instantly his grip tightened, the loose hold he'd had on her shoulders tightening until his arms were around her back, holding her up against him, her forehead pressed against his chest, her body leaning completely against his.

"Take a minute." Feeling her nod against his chest, John exhaled, relieved to finally be holding her, to have finally found her, he just wished he'd been quicker. After a minute she nodded again, his arms letting up on the hold he had on her, easing one of her arms over his left shoulder, bracing her weight against his side. "It's not far, I promise."

Walking took more effort than Elizabeth could have ever imagined, every step feeling like a mile. Pain was ripping through her stomach and it was all she could do not scream with every step, her free arm wrapped around her belly. Beside her, John was acutely aware of how much pain she was in, even more aware of how unable he was to do anything to help her.

As the exited the room and entered the corridor Elizabeth stumbled, a scream tearing from her lips. Instantly John stopped, leaning her against the wall, frowning as she slid down to the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle, her head resting against her knees, breathing hard. Kneeling by her side, John looked at her, gently taking her head in his hands, making her look at him. Her eyes were half shut, struggling to focus on him, her breaths coming in short, sharp gasps.

"Come on Elizabeth," he breathed, "fight this. I know it hurts but you've got to fight." When she didn't respond he tried again, his heart breaking a little more with each painful breath she took. He was all ready to scoop her up as Ronon had with Lt. Shann when footsteps began approaching from down the corridor. They were light and fast, each one making his heart pound more than the last. Raising his weapon, her kept the light off, wanting to keep their location hidden as long as possible. Carefully he sighted the corner, finger on the trigger, ready for the moment whatever it was rounded the corner.

"Don't shoot." Teyla said as she rounded the corner and skidded to a stop, her eyes darting around for his location. Instantly John dropped his weapon flicking the light on as he did.

"How'd you know we were here?"

"I saw you both on the life signs detector. Ronon and Rodney have returned to Atlantis. I said I would wait for you and Dr. Weir however, when I saw you stop I began to worry," she finished, kneeling beside him. Gently she placed the palm of her hand against Elizabeth's cheek, earning a quiet moan in response.

"No, it's good you're here. I'm going to have to carry her. Can you cover me?"

"Yes," her response was quick and sure, raising her weapon and checking both the way John had come and the way ahead. Carefully John eased his hands under Elizabeth, feeling as she fell against his chest, her head rolling onto his shoulder. Even in the dim light of Teyla's torch, John could see where the blood had seeped through the bandages he'd wrapped around Elizabeth's stomach. Quickly nodding to Teyla he set off at a half jog, her by his side.

Finding the room with the fluctuation was a bigger relief to John than he could ever have thought possible. With Teyla on his heels, John climbed the stairs two at a time, straight back to Atlantis.


	16. Chapter 16

The moment he stepped onto the solid ground behind the 'gate a medical team descended, quickly taking Elizabeth from his arms and lying her on a stretcher, carrying her straight to the infirmary. His heart demanded that he follow them, that he never leave her side again but his head told him no, there were things that he needed to do first.

As Teyla climbed back through the fluctuation he rounded the 'gate, yelling for Rodney to put the shield up. The moment the shield went up the fluctuation vanished, blinking out of existence as quickly as it had appeared. At the same time the 'gate shut down as well, the energy that had been powering it gone. Climbing the stairs to ops he nodded to the on duty staff there, looking at Rodney.

"Did it work?"

"Of course it did," came his sure reply.

"Good. Now dial Gishcar and get the team there back. I'm going to the infirmary."

Rodney looked up at him then, his face pale. "I'll be there soon." Around him there was a chorus of agreement, apparently most of Atlantis wanted to check on its leader.

With a final parting nod, John took the stairs two at a time and began running to the infirmary. When he arrived Teyla and Ronon were stood outside.

"Dr. Beckett will not allow us in," Teyla said calmly, a little hint of frustration in her voice. John let himself sag against the wall, sliding down until he was sat on the floor, his legs stuck out in front of him. Quickly both Teyla and Ronon followed his example. When John looked up at them he couldn't help but pull a face at the state of Ronon. He was covered in dried blood, his shirt stiff and sticky, his hands and arms coated in dark red.

"You should go get cleaned up," John managed.

Ronon looked down at his front before grunting slightly, bobbing his head towards Sheppard. "So should you." It was only then that John realised he had Elizabeth's blood on his hands and clothes, that it was caked under his finger nails and soaked into his tactical vest. The feeling of it made him suddenly sick, the thought of leaving the infirmary even more so. Indecision began eating at him, he didn't want to look like this when Carson finally let him in to see Elizabeth but he didn't want to risk leaving her alone either.

As if sensing his inner turmoil Teyla spoke up, "you should both go and change. I will remain here and wait."

Without arguing Ronon stood, looking at Sheppard to do the same. Finally, after another moment he did, unclipping his P90 as he did. His steps were heavy as he walked away from the infirmary, away from Elizabeth.

By the time he got back, not twenty minutes later, Teyla had been joined by Rodney, Ronon and Major Lorne and his team. "Any news?" he asked the moment he arrived. In return Lorne shook his head. Again he sat down opposite Teyla and Ronon, Lorne on his other side. For a long time, they sat in silence, no one really knowing what to say. When, finally the infirmary doors opened revealing Carson stood on the other side everyone climbed to their feet still in silence. For a moment the scot just stood there, looking at the congregation loitering outside his infirmary.

"Alright, Dr. Weir is stable. If you'd like to see her, you can but she's sedated. I want to keep it that way for now." Without hesitation, everyone but Major Lorne and his team moved, quietly making their way into the infirmary. Seeing the Major's hesitation John hung back.

"What about Jen?" Lorne asked, his voice almost hollow. John knew how hard it had been for him to lose his team after the siege. Another loss now might be the final straw.

"Lt. Shann is in serious condition. She's lost a hell of a lot of blood and the trauma she's undergone is extensive. She has an infected puncture wound in her shoulder, incisions into the muscles in her left hand, arm, leg and foot, as well as one into her abdomen. Now we've got her dialysis to filter out the alien toxin in her blood. She's not breathing on her own either, so she's ventilated for now." Pausing, John heard Carson take a breath before he went on, "I'm sorry Major, but if there's no improvement in her condition in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours then her living will request that we turn her life support off." John could see the two marines stood beside Lorne visibly shrink, their shoulders sinking. "If you'd like to come with me you can sit with her but I have to warn you, there are a lot of tubes and wires around the lieutenant." John watched as they walked past before he headed over to sit by Elizabeth. Rodney had already pulled a chair out for him.

For hours John sat by her bedside, watching as the bags hung by her head slowly emptied into her veins, replacing the blood and fluids she'd lost. One by one his team members went on their way, Teyla falling asleep against Ronon's shoulder forcing him to carry her to her quarters and not come back. Rodney left to check on the shield and the dismantling of the grounding rod and most likely to get something to eat. By the time Carson came to check on Elizabeth only John was sat there, a cup of coffee clutched in his hand, his eyes locked on Elizabeth's sleeping face.

"You should get some sleep son," Carson said as he looked at John. He knew how much Elizabeth meant to him, even if the rest of the population of Atlantis didn't. God knew they did a good job of keeping it professional. But knowing how much she meant to him helped him understand how much of a living hell he must have been going through while she was missing.

"I'm good for now Carson," John mumbled, holding his coffee cup up a little before he took a swallow.

Having expected as much, Carson nodded. "Well if it's any consolation she should be waking up anytime. I gave her the last of the sedative and it should wear off in a couple of hours." The thought rallied John a little, gave him a little burst of energy. Smiling in thanks to Carson he watched him head over to the room Shann was in before turning his gaze back to Elizabeth.

Eventually John must have fallen asleep, his eyes shutting against his will, his hand still holding Elizabeth's. It could have been ten minutes or ten hours later when the slight pressure on his fingers jolted him awake. It took a minute for his mind to focus, to come alert to what was around him. Someone had draped a blanket over him while he slept but it wasn't that that had woken him. Again the pressure on his fingers came, his eyes shooting to Elizabeth's face. Her eyes were still shut, but the colour had come back to her cheeks and John was sure she breathing easier. Gently he squeezed her fingers, hoping for her to respond in kind. When she didn't he waited her out, conscious of the fact she may still be asleep. His patience won out though when her eyes flickered open, bouncing from one thing to another, taking in her surroundings.

For Elizabeth, consciousness came back on cloud of painkillers, their weakening influence allowing for an uncomfortable throbbing through her middle. It took effort to open her eyes, but mostly because she didn't want to. She was sure that when she did she'd be back in her cell, cold and alone. At least with her eyes shut she could enjoy the half conscious state, sure she was safe in Atlantis. Gentle pressure on her palm pulled at her thoughts but the desire to stay safe, if only in her mind, was stronger.

As the drugs wore off a little more the subtle bleeping filtered through to her mind, instantly causing her to question her reality. If she was in the cell then no one would be monitoring her heart rate, surely. Curious now, she opened her eyes. The lights were dim enough that she didn't have to blink against them. Below her, the surface was soft, not hard and the air far warmer than she had grown used to. Blinking again to clear the blurred vision Elizabeth saw monitors, her heart rate and blood pressure displayed for all to see. Beside them were empting bags, a thin film of red clinging to the insides of one. Slowly she followed the tubes down, seeing where they were taped to her skin, where it was punctured when they reached the needle at the crook of her elbow.

Again the pressure came against her fingers, her gaze travelling to her hand. Someone else's fingers were wrapped around her own, warm and strong when she tightened her grip. Following the hand upwards, Elizabeth finally saw John, his dark eyes watching her with relief.

"Hey," his voice was rough but quiet and Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been sat there, silently watching over her.

Smiling slightly, she tried to speak, only for her voice to come out as a harsh whisper. Instantly John was on his feet, a jug in his hand. The sight of the water made her dry throat burn, after all, she hadn't had anything since she was taken from the city. Gently he slid his hand under her head, lifting until her lips could reach the cup, pulling it away when she shook her head.

"Better?"

She smiled again, "yes." This time her words came out smoothly. Briefly she looked around the infirmary again, "how long have I been here?"

"About a day." Elizabeth let her eyes fall closed at that. A day. There were so many things she wanted ask, so many things burning at the forefront of her mind but ultimately it came down to one thing.

"Is the city safe?"

For the first time John smiled. Trust Elizabeth to worry about the city over herself. "Yes. Rodney fixed it. We're not going to be losing anyone else." For a minute he was quiet, not really knowing what to say to her. "I'm going to go get Beckett." Standing, he placed the blanket over her feet, gave her another smile and left to find Carson, leaving Elizabeth alone with her thoughts.

From where she was lying, Atlantis seemed to running smoothly. The personnel she could see were more at ease than they had been before, and that in turn eased her own worried mind. If John said everything was fixed, then she trusted him. Leaning her head back against the pillows, Elizabeth closed her eyes, breathing out slowly, all too aware of the deep ache running through her stomach. In her mind she could still see the creatures that had taken her, that had tortured her, that had wanted to kill her. The mental image sent a shiver through her, her eyes blinking open, the light banishing the mental torment.

A moment later, Elizabeth could hear footsteps approaching followed by Carson's rich accent. "Good to see your awake. How're you feeling love?"

"I'm fine." Both Carson and John looked doubtful.

"Okay. Let's try this. Are you in any pain?" She was tempted to lie again but the pain was getting a little more intense than she'd like. Apparently Carson read her face. "I'm going to give you some morphine. It'll probably make you sleepy again though."

Instantly she shook her head, "no. I think I've slept enough this past day." Beside Carson, John grinned slightly causing the exasperation on Carson's face to grow tenfold.

"Alright, how about this. I'll give you some codeine. It won't take away the pain completely, but it'll ease it." She watched him go over to one of the cabinets, pulling out the required bottle and drawing up a syringe. Beside her, John settled himself back into his chair, kicking his feet up onto the side of her bed, causing her to smile.

When Carson came back he threw a glare at John that instantly made him drop his feet, a thoroughly chagrined look on his face before he injected the liquid into Elizabeth's IV line. "I'll let you rest now."

A thought struck her suddenly, one of the many scattered things that had been on her mind. "Lt. Shann, is she," her voice trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Both Carson's and John's faces clouded, causing her heart to plummet.

Finally, Carson took a breath, seeing the despair on her face, "no, she's alive," Elizabeth could sense the 'but' coming, "but she's on life support and there's been no sign of improvement." They could both see the sadness in Elizabeth's eyes. Neither of them knew exactly what had happened since their disappearance, Dr. Marshall's account only filling in the end of the story. With a sad smile, Carson left her in John's company.

From where he was sat, John could see that Elizabeth's thoughts had taken her away from the infirmary, back to whatever had happened. He so desperately wanted to ask, to help her exorcise the demons that he had no doubt were running rampant through her mind, but at the same time, he wasn't sure that he could take hearing it. The whole time she'd been missing he'd felt so powerless. When his thoughts cleared he realised she was watching him, her green eyes trying desperately to probe into his thoughts.

"What's wrong?" Her voice was quiet, almost exhausted.

"Nothing's wrong," the defensive tone ringing in his ears. It didn't faze her, an eyebrow quirking at the blatant lie. His shoulders sank as he exhaled, the brave face he'd been trying to hold onto disappearing.

"I'm sorry," he said simply, "I should have been quicker, got to you sooner, been a better leader while you were gone." He felt so guilty, in every way he'd let her down.

Her eyes flooded with sympathy, her heart breaking at the sight of him so sad and broken, "John, I'm sure you did everything you could. Atlantis is still here, you did great." Her confidence in him seemed misplaced in his eyes, an argument already building on his lips, her voice cutting him off. "This is going to take time to get over, but I've got you by my side to help me do it, and I'm going to be by your side for you. Don't apologise for something you couldn't have changed." His face softened at her words, she was right he knew.

After that, at her begging, John went through everything that had happened in the city, quietly explaining each and every step. Part of him knew he should be letting her rest but the other part of him couldn't help himself. It felt like everything was getting back to normal. He was almost at the end of his version of events when a shout drew both their gazes. Lorne was stood, leaning out of the room Lt. Shann was, his face a mask of concern. Instantly Elizabeth's heart sank. She could do nothing but watch as Carson ran towards the room, his white coat billowing out behind him as he disappeared. Again John looked over to Elizabeth, watching her as she watched the door. The pain on her face made him want to cry, instantly he took her hand, squeezing it tight, the only support he could give.

It felt like hours later when Carson came out, a tired Lorne behind him. One look at Elizabeth told John she needed to know, that it was breaking her heart not knowing, but couldn't find the words to ask.

"Major", he called, watching as Lorne turned to face him. "What's happening." For a moment John thought he was about to cry, Elizabeth's grip on his hand tightening, before an exhausted smile split the Major's face.

"She's breathing." John smiled along with him at the news while Elizabeth let her head fall back against the pillow, a relieved sigh on her lips.


	17. Epilogue

As much as John wished it was possible, running Atlantis from the infirmary didn't work, only allowing him a few hours a day to sit with Elizabeth. Debriefings needed to be completed. Reports needed to be written up. Scientific arguments needed to be settled. There was so much to do that he still had no idea how Elizabeth managed it and not kill someone in the process.

Two days after the mission to bring everyone home the database finally kicked back everything it knew. Rodney's thrilled excitement as he burst into Elizabeth's office was tempered by John's growled "it couldn't have done this a week ago?" Between them they read through the data, the final pieces falling into place. The 'creatures' they discovered were called the Niigruvite and had contacted the Ancient's shortly after the City had been built. Their technology had rivalled their own. The ability to effect speed with a simple frequency pulse that could be refined to a single molecule or to whole room had fascinated them. Even more so the way they could open up doorways through space that could link distant galaxies. Rodney couldn't contain his excitement when the specifications appeared at the bottom of the reports, quickly bounding out of the room to study them in more detail, leaving John alone with his thoughts and the final few reports.

One thing the Ancients had discovered was the Niigruvite's immense life span. It had led to arguments within city. They had only just discovered the ability to ascend and for those unwilling to attempt the process, discovering the Niigruvite's secret to eternal life had seemed a thrilling and easier alternative. It was there that direct and factual reports seemed to end, the details going more into suspicions and guessing. Arguments within the Ancient society had reached a boiling point with a small group deciding to break away and leave during the night. The 'gate address they went to was never recorded. John could only guess they had travelled to Gishcar.

Finally closing his laptop, John stared at the walls unsure what to make of it all. He wanted so much to go and show Elizabeth, to get her views on the entire thing but Carson had threatened him not to push her too hard, especially since he'd sat there for three hours explaining everything that had happened. Looking at the clock he decided to get some sleep. They were sending the people they'd lost back to Earth tomorrow.

The service was small. The coffins of everyone they'd lost lined up in front of the Stargate, each draped with their countries flag. John hated giving speeches so in the end decided not to, instead standing solemnly as Taps was played, followed by the Last Post. Slowly the coffins were passed through the gate to the SGC. When the 'gate finally shut down the congregation dispersed and returned to duty leaving John feeling hollow, the space next to him standing empty, Elizabeth still in the infirmary. Now it was time to try and get back to normal, the latest disaster at an end leaving only his demons to exorcise.

* * *

 

Carson refused to let her out of the infirmary for a week, adamant she need bed rest and time to heal, convinced that the moment he let her out she would go straight to her office and move back in. In the end she begged him, desperate to be away from the four walls of the infirmary and the quiet, yet incessantly beeping machines that she was sure were slowly sending her round the bend. John had been sat by her side every day, for as long as he could manage, when the city didn't demand his attention.

She was sure that their secret must be out by now, but then again Rodney, Teyla, Ronon and other members of the expedition had been keeping her company too. She'd been incredibly surprised at the outpouring of friendship she'd received while being cooped up in bed. More than once, Carson had been forced to kick people out, especially when Rodney and Zalenka had begun discussing, arguing, the finer points of the translation matrix with her.

Now with her own clothes on instead of a hospital gown, Elizabeth felt like she was getting back to normal. Her stomach still pulled and at time hurt more than she cared to admit but Carson assured her it was healing well and it was unlikely to leave a scar, something for which she was immensely grateful. Sliding off the bed, she was relieved to find her legs strong underneath her, her mind flicking back to how weak she'd felt just after she'd woken up.

Looking over to the room where Lt. Shann was resting, Elizabeth had a moment of indecision. She hadn't seen the lieutenant since they'd been brought home, in fact Elizabeth had been convinced that the young woman had died at first. She'd seen Carson shoo Major Lorne and his team out a few hours ago, the three men had been taking turn sitting vigil by her bedside for the past week. The need to check on her grew, Elizabeth felt she owed her that much, after all, she'd done her very best to protect her from the creatures.

Her feet were moving before her mind had consciously agreed, quickly stepping through the door. Jen was lying on her side, her left arm and hand almost completely bandaged up, only the tips of her fingers visible. A drip still hung above her head and there was the continuous beeping of the monitors behind her. A defibrillator and ventilator still hiding in the corners of the room, evidence of how close a call it had been. Elizabeth stood there for a moment, watching the steady rhythm of her heartbeats on the monitor, listening to her quiet breaths as she slept. Having seen her was enough, Elizabeth was content to let her sleep for now. There would be time for conversation later.

The halls of Atlantis were quiet and when she looked out of the windows the sky had darkened. It was only then that Elizabeth realised how late it was and how tired she still felt, her own bed calling to her despite how much she wanted to check in with the control room. Slowly making her way down the corridors of Atlantis, Elizabeth opened the door to her quarters, quickly changing and climbing into bed. More tired than she'd realised she fell asleep quickly.

Only hours later, she woke up startled by a noise in her room. At first her mind jumped to the last time she'd been woken up, her heart beginning to thump wildly in her chest. A moment later there was a weight on the bed behind her and her heart rate dropped. John's warm arms slid around her shoulders, his chest pressing flat against her back. Instantly she leaned into him, tucking her head under his chin, her hands wrapping around his wrists, his hold on her making her feel safe and secure despite the darkness that was in her mind.

"I've missed this," he murmured into her ear, his voice soft and warm, his breath ruffling her hair a little.

"Me too." John's warmth helped ease her mind, his warm, comforting presence letting her fall asleep in his arms, safe in the knowledge that everything was just fine.


	18. Shann

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Stargate, I really do, but sometimes I think they throw the lives of other teams away too easily, forgetting that the bonds of friendship and family would be in the other teams aswell and that injuries/deaths would impact on the survivors. Also I got a bit too attached to Jen.

She'd never felt pain quite like this before. Broken bones, yes. Broken heart, check. Being dissected while awake, that was new. Even though the knife was away from her skin, the wounds left alone, the pain was still there, throbbing away, making everything more than a little hazy, her senses far less sharp than she'd like. Still, despite all that, Jen could sense Dr. Weir watching her. Breathing was taking more effort than she could have imagined it would, rolling her head felt like her muscles were cramping into cement, whatever they'd given still in her system. When her cheek hit the cold metal of the table Jen gave up knowing that was probably be the last movement she'd make in this lifetime. Her eyes didn't even react to the blinding light when she opened them, the world around her wobbly and blurred, the shape Elizabeth's face nothing more than a fuzzy circle. Still though, she knew she was watching her.

"It's been the best thing to serve on the expedition, ma'am." The words left her mouth before she'd even really thought about them, but then again what was there to think about. The past six months had been an immense privilege, to serve in the mystical city she and her brothers had wanted to visit so much when they'd been kids. To die serving that city and the friends she'd made there. Well, there were worse ways to go. At least now she'd see her brothers again.

Jen never really heard what Elizabeth said to her after that, her mind drifting into unconsciousness, jolted back to awareness at the Weir's short scream. The noise only registered for a moment before the pain and cold dragged her back under, her mind only vaguely aware of the crack of weapons and the heavy thud of bodies. Warm hands pulled at her mind again, the touch gentle at her ankles and wrists, firm pressure against her throat. When pressure was applied to incisions on her arms, Jen wanted to scream, the pain back to its exquisite best. Eventually it was enough to push her back into unconsciousness, her mind free of the hurts of the moment.

* * *

 

Lorne hated not being able to back Sheppard up. Especially on this mission. Behind him Zalenka and his team were quiet, watching the screens they'd set up with an intensity he found hard to muster. His two marines on the other hand were pacing back and forth around the 'gate, continuously checking their watches, throwing looks at the shimmering blue of the wormhole as they did, impatience and fear burning in every muscle. It had been over two hours since Sheppard and his team had gone through, how long did it take. Again he turned to Zalenka, giving the scientist an impatient look receiving a solemn shrug in return. Impatience was something Lorne had learnt to deal with in during the expedition, normally it was having to wait for the order to go and extract Sheppard's team from whatever they had gotten themselves into this time. Now though, it was a little more personal.

A moment later the 'gate shut down, Hunter and Jake raising their weapons at the disturbance. Another glance at Zalenka, the scientist nodding. "Alright everyone, pack it up and let's go home." He'd never seen the marines move so fast to help the science teams and in any other instance he was have laughed but he shared their feeling of impatience. Over the past six months he'd learnt the dynamic of his new team, how they worked together. The two marines had already been close, brothers in everything but blood. Fighting the Goa'uld would do that to you. Jen had been the wild card. No 'gate experience. Only two years in the Navy. Still so young that he felt she could have been in high school. Part of him had been put off at her being British. Instead she'd slotted into the team like she'd been there forever, Hunter and Jake quickly adopting her into the family they'd built between them, thier surrogate sister. They'd quickly learnt to depend on each other and as much as he missed his old team he wouldn't trade his new one for anything. Now he was faced of the prospect of having to do exactly that, only this time there would be death in the team's history, a hole where once there had been a person. At least at the moment there was still a chance of her being alive, when they went back it would be decided one way or another.

It took less than fifteen minutes to get everything back through the 'gate, the scientist just as eager to be away from Gishcar as he and his team was to get back to the City. Operations was quiet when they stepped through, a despondent air hanging between the personnel. Handing his P90 to Jake he headed up the stairs, checking in with Chuck as he did. "They get back alright?"

"Yes, sir."

How did he even ask? "The condition of our personnel?"

Chuck seemed to take sympathy on him them, his eyes filling with compassion. "They took them to the infirmary. All three of them. You should head down." Something in Chuck's eyes made him nervous.

Nodding he turned ordering the marines to leave their tac vests and weapons there. To his surprise Teyla and Rodney were the only ones there when they arrived, their vests and weapons still by their sides. Silently they sat down, the three of them eyeing the infirmary with worry. "What happened?" Lorne's voice was more strained than he'd like.

"We were able to bring Doctors Weir and Marshal and Lt. Shann home. Dr. Beckett will not allow anyone into the infirmary until he has stabilised them." It was only a few minutes later when Ronon and Sheppard arrived, both looking freshly showered. He couldn't help but wonder why they need to clean up so desperately. Jake and Hunter shared a look at that, no doubt the same thought he'd had been running through their minds as well. Apart from a few scattered words silence reigned until the infirmary doors opened. After a moment Carson sent John's team in to see Dr. Weir he turned to Lorne and his team, the three of them bracing themselves for the worst.

"Lt. Shann is in serious condition. She's lost a hell of a lot of blood and the trauma she's undergone is extensive. She has an infected puncture wound in her shoulder, incisions into the muscles in her left hand, arm, leg and foot, as well as one into her abdomen. Now we've got her dialysis to filter out the alien toxin in her blood. She's not breathing on her own either, so she's ventilated for now." Lorne felt the breath leave his body. "I'm sorry Major, but if there's no improvement in her condition in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours then her living will request that we turn her life support off. If you'd like to come with me you can sit with her but I have to warn you, there are a lot of tubes and wires around the lieutenant."

Beside him he felt Hunter and Jake crumple as they followed Carson through the infirmary, past the group gathered around Elizabeth and past Dr. Marshall sleeping on one of the beds in the corner. The room she was in was dim, the lights low in case she suddenly woke up. His normally bright and witty lieutenant was as pale the sheets she was lying on. Bulky bandages were wrapped around her left arm and hand, a lump in the blanket suggested the same for her left leg and ribs. More bandages were wrapped around her shoulder, the hospital gown not quiet covering them all. Wires ran from her chest and hands to the machines that monitored her pulse and respirations. A defibrillator was pushed into a corner, close at hand should anything happen. Bags hung above her head, antibiotics, fluids and blood. He could only just see her face, her head only slightly raised from the flat bed, a tube running down her throat and into her lungs, keeping her breathing, the tubing taped to her pale cheeks, the machine noisy in the corner. There were so many wires she looked like she was lying in a nest of them. Machines surrounded the head of the bed, whirring a bleeping in quiet rhythm. Behind him, the two marines stopped in the doorway, frozen as they watched her. Taking the lead, he sat down beside Jen, gently taking her hand, carefully of the tubes there. Eventually Hunter and Jake joined him, the two big and burly marines ever so gently stroking away the stray strands of her blonde hair from her face and holding the tips of her bandaged fingers.

"Should we contact her family?" Jake's voice was quiet, his mind trying to work out how they'd even reach them; the first time he'd spoken since they'd come into the room hours ago.

Lorne shook his head. "She doesn't have anyone back on Earth." Jake's mouth formed an 'oh' his eyes even sadder than they were before. Lorne felt the stab of pain too. He remembered her saying that they were as close as a family as she'd ever have again.

* * *

 

Even in unconsciousness her mind wasn't free of pain. The worst emotional hurt she had ever felt running over and over again in her sleep. Walking home from a friends when she was fifteen. The police car sat in her drive, the neighbours looking on. Police tape strung across the pavement. Her slow steps picking up into a run as she pulled the headphones off and barrelled into the drive, the snapped tape flaring in the breeze. The detective sat on the steps, the uniformed officer beside him, both with the same sympathetic look. "Do you know where you parents are?" The question filled her with dread. The look between them when she said they were on a trip even more so. The journey to the hospital. Her baby brother on life support. Her older brother sat by his side, his wrists cuffed and tears running down his face, a police officer behind him. His sobbing words, "I didn't see him and I hit him with the car." The day they turned his life support off, the final breath leaving his body in a quiet exhale. Three weeks later she was running again. Her brother stood on the edge of the flooded quarry, stepping off even as he said 'I'm sorry." Her screaming at the air as she begged him not too, screaming at her parents not to close themselves off, not to ignore her. Sobbing as she realised everything was gone.

The sobs turned into choking, her breaths not coming as fast as she needed them, in a different rhythm than she wanted, to slow for her to cope, her throat tight and sore, trying to breath around a tube that shouldn't be there. Everything was too loud, too bright, her body hyperaware. Her hands closing into fists as she tried to cope. Someone was yelling, hands holding her down against the bed. Heavy running footsteps approached. The tube in her throat was pulled out, her desperate gasps for breath turning into racking coughs. Frantically her eyes searched the room, her three teammates staring back with worried eyes, Dr. Becket by her head flashing a light in her eyes.

"Good to have you back with us." His Scottish lilt reminded her of home a little.

Somehow she smiled. Gently the bed was raised enough for her to look around a little easier, the three men who had become her brothers looking back at her with more relief now than worry. Their eyes taking in the sight of her watching them.

Everything hurt. Every muscle in her body throbbed and ached. Her fingers burning where she'd tightened them into a fist in her panic. They must have seen the pain in her eyes, the three of them turning to look at Carson as he quickly drew up a syringe, smiling as he slid it into her IV line, pressing the plunger down even as she whispered, "no, I don't want to sleep."

Lorne took her hand again then, his fingers easily wrapping around her small palm, the simple act of friendship enough to settle her swirling mind. "Yes you do." His voice was calm but firm, not an order, a suggestion. In response she felt her own hand tighten around his, her lifeline to the waking world, the tether that told her she was safe. On her other side she watched as Jake and Hunter leant back in their chairs, shoulders relaxing as they smiled at her. Still, Jen fought the drugs in her system, to stubborn just to give in easily despite the relief from the pain that was making her muscles melt. As her eyes began to close she was sure that there was someone there, her head rolling to look at the corner of the room, squinting to try and focus. Her brothers were there and not her marine ones. Luca's tall, skinny frame half hidden by little Ollie, his curly hair pressed against his brother's chest. The last thing she saw before the drugs pulled her under were their smiles.


End file.
